Examination of current DSM and educational diagnostic criteria. Emphasis will be placed on linking assessment data to psychoeducational diagnosis and treatment. The unifying theme of your primary text and of this course is that childhood psychopathology should be regarded as normal development gone awry.
Normal development becomes the point of departure for understanding childhood disturbances.
Psychopathology will be viewed from an ecological and systems framework in which the challenge will be to determine what forces divert development from the normal course, and what forces either sustain the deviation or foster a return to normality. The various psychopathologies will be examined in terms of their definitions and characteristics as described by psychiatric and educational nomenclature. Each disorder will be described in terms of etiology, developmental course, comorbidity, and prevalence by age, gender, socioeconomic status and race. Additionally, normal problems in living, emotional distress, relationship and family problems, behavioral excesses and deficits, and academic difficulties which do not rise to the level of psychopathology but which may require assessment or supportive interventions will be examined. Assessment methodologies will be reviewed, and the linkages between assessment methods, diagnostic categories, and treatment modalities will be discussed.