SLD – DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA

A. Difficulties learning and using academic skills, as indicated by the presence of at least one of the following symptoms
that have persisted for at least 6 months, despite the provision of interventions that target those difficulties:
1. Inaccurate or slow and effortful word reading (e.g., reads single words aloud incorrectly or slowly and hesitantly,
frequently guesses words, has difficulty sounding out words).
2. Difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read (e.g., may read text accurately but not understand the
sequence, relationships, inferences, or deeper meanings of what is read).
3. Difficulties with spelling (e.g., may add, omit, or substitute vowels or consonants).
4. Difficulties with written expression (e.g., makes multiple grammatical or punctuation errors within sentences;
employs poor paragraph organization; written expression of ideas lacks clarity).
5. Difficulties mastering number sense, number facts, or calculation (e.g., has poor understanding of numbers, their
magnitude, and relationships; counts on fingers to add single-digit numbers instead of recalling the math fact as
peers do; gets lost in the midst of arithmetic computation and may switch procedures).
6. Difficulties with mathematical reasoning (e.g., has severe difficulty applying mathematical concepts, facts, or
procedures to solve quantitative problems).
 SLD – DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
B. The affected academic skills are substantially and quantifiably below those expected for the individual’s chronological
age, and cause significant interference with academic or occupational performance, or with activities of daily living, as
confirmed by individually administered standardized achievement measures and comprehensive clinical assessment. For
individuals age 17 years and older, a documented history of impairing learning difficulties may be substituted for the
standardized assessment.
C. The learning difficulties begin during school-age years but may not become fully manifest until the demands for those
affected academic skills exceed the individual’s limited capacities (e.g., as in timed tests, reading or writing lengthy
complex reports for a tight deadline, excessively heavy academic loads).
D. The learning difficulties are not better accounted for by intellectual disabilities, uncorrected visual or auditory acuity,
other mental or neurological disorders, psychosocial adversity, lack of proficiency in the language of academic
instruction, or inadequate educational instruction.
SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY – INTRODUCTION
TO THE TOPIC
❑ The inadequate development found in learning disorders, a term that refers to delayed development, may be
manifested in language, speech, mathematical, or motor skills, and it is not necessarily due to any demonstrable
physical or neurological defect.
❑ The diagnosis of learning disorders is restricted to those cases in which there is clear impairment in school performance
or (if the person is not a student) in daily living activities, and is not due to intellectual disability or developmental
disorder.
❑ Skill deficits due to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are coded under that diagnosis. This coding presents another
diagnostic dilemma, however, because some investigators hold that an attention deficit is basic to many learning
disorders
❑ Children with learning disorder are initially identified as such because of an apparent disparity between their expected
academic achievement level and their actual academic performance in one or more school subjects such as math,
spelling, writing, or reading.
❑ Significantly more boys than girls are diagnosed as learning disabled, but estimates of the extent of this gender
discrepancy have varied widely from study to study.
 CAUSAL FACTORS OF SLD
❑ Probably the most widely held view of the causes of specific learning disorders is that they are the products of subtle central
nervous system impairments.
❑ These disabilities are thought to result from some sort of immaturity, deficiency, or dysregulation limited to those brain
functions that supposedly mediate, for normal children, the cognitive skills that learning disorder children cannot efficiently
acquire.
❑ Many researchers believe that language-related learning disorders such as dyslexia are associated with a failure of the brain to
develop in a normally asymmetrical manner with respect to the right and left hemispheres. Specifically, portions of the left
hemisphere, where language function is normally mediated, for unknown reasons appear to remain relatively underdeveloped
in many dyslexic individuals.
❑ Recent studies have also suggested that dyslexic individuals have a deficiency of physiological activation in the cerebellum.

❑ Some investigators believe that the various forms of learning disorder, or the vulnerability to develop them, may be genetically
transmitted.
❑ Identification of a gene region for dyslexia on chromosome 6 has been reported (Schulte-Koerne, 2001).

❑ Although it would be somewhat surprising if a single gene were identified as the causal factor in all cases of reading disorder,
the hypothesis of a genetic contribution to at least the dyslexic form of learning disorder seems promising.
 TREATMENT FOR SLD
❑ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zp0XMYH6ZLsWFoKn9189ud768ZJGFlsy7PJVgyhP2E0/edit?usp=shari
ng
❑ This covers techniques, which you will include as a part of the treatment.
 AUTISM – DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across
multiple contexts, as manifested by all of the following, currently or by
history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):
1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from
abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth
conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to
failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction,
ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal
communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or
deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial
expressions and nonverbal communication.
3. Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding
relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties
adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to
difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends;
to absence of interest in peers.
B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or
activities, as manifested by at least two of the following,
currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not
exhaustive; see text):
1. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of
objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypies, lining
up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).
 AUTISM – DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
2. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of
verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with
transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat
same food every day).
3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong
attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or
perseverative interests).
4. Hyper- or hypo reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the
environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to
specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual
fascination with lights or movement).
Symptoms must be present in the early developmental period
(but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed
limited capacities, or may be masked by learned strategies in
later life).
Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social,
occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.
These disturbances are not better explained by intellectual
developmental disorder (intellectual disability) or global
developmental delay. Intellectual developmental disorder and
autism spectrum disorder frequently co-occur; to make comorbid
diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and intellectual
developmental disorder, social communication should be below
that expected for general developmental level.
 CAUSAL FACTORS OF AUTISM
1. The precise cause or causes of autism are unknown, although most investigators agree that a fundamental disturbance
of the central nervous system is involved.
2. Investigators believe that autism begins with some type of inborn defect that impairs an infant’s perceptual-cognitive
functioning—the ability to process incoming stimuli and to relate to the world.
3. MRI research suggests that abnormalities in the brain anatomy may contribute to the brain metabolic differences and
behavioral phenotype in autism.
4. Whatever the physiological mechanisms or brain structures involved, evidence has accumulated that defective genes or
damage from radiation or other conditions during prenatal development may play a significant role in the etiologic
picture
5. The most extensive autism genetics research project recently reported that tiny, rare variations in genes increase the
risk of autism spectrum disorder.
6. These results suggest that components of the brain’s glutamate neurotransmitter system are involved in autism. Thus,
autism seemingly results from faulty wiring in the early stages of development. That is, glutamate increases neuronal
activity and plays an important role in wiring the brain during early development.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zp0XMYH6ZLsWFoKn9189ud768ZJGFlsy7PJVgyhP2E0/edit?usp=sharing - Treatment
 TREATMENT FOR AUTISM

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 CONDUCT DISORDER – DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
A. A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal
norms or rules are violated, as manifested by the presence of at least three of the following 15 criteria in the past 12
months from any of the categories below, with at least one criterion present in the past 6 months:
1. Aggression to People and Animals
⮚ Often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others.
⮚ Often initiates physical fights.
⮚ Has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others (e.g., a bat, brick, broken bottle, knife,
gun).
⮚ Has been physically cruel to people.
⮚ Has been physically cruel to animals.
⮚ Has stolen while confronting a victim (e.g., mugging, purse snatching, extortion, armed robbery).
⮚ Has forced someone into sexual activity.
2. Destruction of Property
⮚ Has deliberately engaged in fire setting with the intention of causing serious damage.
⮚ Has deliberately destroyed others’ property (other than by fire setting).
 CONDUCT DISORDER – DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
3. Deceitfulness or Theft
⮚ Has broken into someone else’s house, building, or car.
⮚ Often lies to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations (i.e., “cons” others).
⮚ Has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a victim (e.g., shoplifting, but without breaking and
entering; forgery).
4. Serious Violations of Rules
⮚ Often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions, beginning before age 13 years.
⮚ Has run away from home overnight at least twice while living in the parental or parental surrogate home, or
once without returning for a lengthy period.
⮚ Is often truant from school, beginning before age 13 years.
B. The disturbance in behavior causes clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning.
C. If the individual is age 18 years or older, criteria are not met for antisocial personality disorder.
 CONDUCT DISORDER – CLINICAL PICTURE
❑ Involves a persistent, repetitive violation of rules and a disregard for the rights of others.
❑ Children with conduct disorder show a deficit in social behavior.
❑ In general, they manifest such characteristics as overt or covert hostility, disobedience, physical and verbal
aggressiveness, quarrelsomeness, vengefulness, and destructiveness. Lying, solitary stealing, and temper tantrums are
common. Such children tend to be sexually uninhibited and inclined toward sexual aggressiveness.
❑ Children and adolescents with conduct disorder are also frequently comorbid for other disorders such as substance-
abuse disorder or depressive symptoms.
❑ Fergusson, Horwood, and Ridder (2007) and Yang and colleagues (2007) found that conduct disorder in childhood and
adolescence is generally related to later substance use, abuse, and dependence.
 CONDUCT DISORDER – CAUSAL FACTORS
1. A Self-Perpetuating Cycle:
⮚ Certain genetic predisposition leading to low verbal intelligence, mild neuropsychological problems, and difficult
temperament can set the stage for early-onset conduct disorder.
⮚ The child’s difficult temperament may lead to an insecure attachment because parents find it hard to engage in the
good parenting that would promote a secure attachment.
⮚ the low verbal intelligence and mild neuropsychological deficits that have been documented in many of these
children—some of which may involve deficiencies in self-control functions such as sustaining attention, planning,
self-monitoring, and inhibiting unsuccessful or impulsive behaviors—may help set the stage for a lifelong course of
difficulties.
2. Psychosocial Factors:
⮚ Children who are aggressive and socially unskilled are often rejected by their peers, and such rejection can lead to
a spiraling sequence of social interactions with peers that exacerbates the tendency toward antisocial behavior.
⮚ The combination of rejection by parents, peers, and teachers leads these children to become isolated and
alienated.
⮚ The family setting of a child with conduct disorder is typically characterized by ineffective parenting, rejection,
harsh and inconsistent discipline, and parental neglect.
 CONDUCT DISORDER – TREATMENT
1. A Self-Perpetuating Cycle:
⮚ Certain genetic predisposition leading to low verbal intelligence, mild neuropsychological problems, and difficult
temperament can set the stage for early-onset conduct disorder.
⮚ The child’s difficult temperament may lead to an insecure attachment because parents find it hard to engage in the
good parenting that would promote a secure attachment.
⮚ the low verbal intelligence and mild neuropsychological deficits that have been documented in many of these
children—some of which may involve deficiencies in self-control functions such as sustaining attention, planning,
self-monitoring, and inhibiting unsuccessful or impulsive behaviors—may help set the stage for a lifelong course of
difficulties.
2. Psychosocial Factors:
⮚ Children who are aggressive and socially unskilled are often rejected by their peers, and such rejection can lead to
a spiraling sequence of social interactions with peers that exacerbates the tendency toward antisocial behavior.
⮚ The combination of rejection by parents, peers, and teachers leads these children to become isolated and
alienated.
⮚ The family setting of a child with conduct disorder is typically characterized by ineffective parenting, rejection,
harsh and inconsistent discipline, and parental neglect.
 TREATMENT FOR CONDUCT DISORDER

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