These types of behavioural disturbances make life difficult for the whole family. For all behavioural abnormalities information is collected on past and current behaviour. Part 7 is a rating of the individual's quality of social interaction which is obtained from all the information collected through the interview, together with observations of the individual. This is a key variable when considering planning education and management. Psychiatric conditions of all kinds can be seen in association with autistic spectrum disorders during adolescence and adult life.
Depression is probably the commonest problem.
Psychiatric disorders are easier to recognise and diagnose in more able individuals who have enough speech to talk about their symptoms. All the items have numerical codes which can be entered into a specially written computer programme. This information can be used for different purposes. A high inter-rater reliability was found. There was also good discrimination between groups of children with respectively, autistic spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, language disorders and typically developing children.