A Web resource page of the National Dissemination
Center for Children with Disabilities
NICHCY Connections...
to Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
Launched April 2, 2004
Approx. 6 pages when printed
NICHCY's Connections pages are designed to put you in quick contact
with information that's readily available on the Internet. We're pleased to
offer this particular resource page to connect you with sources of information
about children and youth with Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. This page is part of a
"suite" of pages on disorders along the autism spectrum. The suite
includes:
Why a Suite of Different Pages?
Why are we designing these resources pages as part of a suite? How and why
are they connected to one other? The answer lies in the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM is the guide typically used by
physicians and mental health professionals to diagnose the five disorders listed
above. Published by the American Psychiatric Association, the latest edition
of the DSM came out in 2000 and is known as the DSM-IV-TR (meaning the fourth
edition, text revision). It lists the symptoms associated with each of the five
disorders. Most importantly, it also groups all five disorders under the
"umbrella" category of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, or PDD.
Why? Because these disorders share in common the following characteristics:
impairments in social interaction, imaginative activity, verbal and nonverbal
communication skills, and a limited number of interests and activities that
tend to be repetitive.
The Umbrella Category: PDD
The term Pervasive Developmental Disorders was first used in the 1980s
to describe a class of disorders with similar symptoms or characteristics. The
term occasionally causes some confusion, because one of the disorders underneath
the umbrella has a very similar name---PDDNOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Not Otherwise Specified). As a result, PDD and PDDNOS are sometimes used interchangeably.
A doctor, for example, may tell a parent that his or her child has PDD. This
may stir up confusion further down the diagnostic and treatment road, because
PDD actually refers to the overall category of disorders. It's not a
diagnostic label. Some doctors, however, are hesitant to diagnose very young
children with a specific type of PDD, such as Autistic Disorder or Asperger's
Syndrome, and therefore only use the general category label of PDD. In other
cases, the doctor may say PDD as a shorter way of talking about PDDNOS.
To avoid this confusion, our suite of pages will use the term PDD to refer
to the overall category of Pervasive Developmental Disorders and the term PDDNOS
to refer to the specific disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise
Specified.
This particular page connects you with resources on Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.
The resources we've listed aren't intended to be exhaustive of those available.
We'll be adding to this page throughout the year, so you may wish to check back
every now and again to see what's new!
What is Childhood Disintegrative Disorder?
- The DSM diagnostic criteria for CDD.
www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=PDD#cdd
Without explanation or elaboration, here's the criteria for Childhood Disintegrative
Disorder as it appears in the DSM-IV-TR.
- Contrast DSM criteria for CDD with the other PDD disorders.
www.nichcy.org/pubs/factshe/fs20txt.htm
NICHCY offers a briefing paper on PDD that includes an overview to the umbrella
category under which mental health professionals have placed Childhood Disintegrative
Disorder. This includes the DSM criteria that are used to diagnose the disorder.
You may also find it helpful to see these criteria contrasted with those used
to diagnose the four other disorders under the PDD umbrella.
- A description of CDD.
http://info.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism/cdd.html
The Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic offers comprehensive, multidisciplinary
evaluations for children with social disabilities, usually focusing on the
issues of diagnosis and intervention. The above article includes a description
of CDD, its clinical features and diagnosis, history, its course and prognosis,
its etiology, and a case illustration.
- From the medical encyclopedia at Medline Plus.
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001535.htm
Read Medline's description of CDD, including definition, causes, risk factors,
symptoms, signs and tests, treatment, prognosis, and complications. Medline
is a service of the National Library of Medicine.
- A brief description of CDD and a comparison of DSM criteria with other
criteria used internationally.
www.mental-health-matters.com/disorders/index.php
This site provides information and connection on all sorts of mental health
matters. From the link above, the "disorders" page, you can scroll
down to Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and see what they have to offer.
One interesting link takes you to the ICD-10 criteria for diagnosing mental
disorders (ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders
World Health Organization, Geneva, 1992).
- Want to know more about the DSM-VI-TR, and how it was compiled?
www.appi.org/dsm.cfx
Visit the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV-TR Library, located at
the link above.
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Research on Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
We were unable to identify research being conducted that focuses specifically
or exclusively upon childhood disintegrative disorder. We've listed only a few
resources below that you may find useful when investigating research on the disorder.
However, because CDD is under the umbrella of PDD, as is autism, you may find
it helpful to know what research is being conducted on the autism spectrum and
what it's revealing. For that latter information, we refer you to the research
section of our Connections pages on autism, at: www.nichcy.org/resources/autism.asp#research.
- Autism and PDD research at the Yale Child Study Center.
http://info.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism/research.html
Visit the Center to find out what research they're conducting on autism and
PDD.
- Want to know how to evaluate research studies?
www.researchautism.org/uploads/parents%20guide.pdf
OAR, the Organization for Autism Research, offers a guide, entitled Life
Journey Through Autism: A Parent's Guide to Research, to help parents
become "savvy" about finding and consuming information on autism, with special
emphasis upon examining the research. Sources of this information are presented.
The science model is then explained, along with a framework for evaluating
research studies and the current state of autism research.
And since so little is actually written about CDD exclusively, we thought
you'd want to know about these publications in professional journals.
- Ask the Editor: What is childhood disintegrative disorder, how is it different
from autism, and what is believed to be its cause? (2000, April). Journal
of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30(2), 177-177. (Abstracts of
journal articles are available online at: www.springerlink.com.
Select "Browse Publications A-Z," go to J and scroll through the
J's until you come to Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. There
are two listings. You want the first, which is the Historical Archive of the
journal when it was published by Kluwer Publishers.)
- Malhotra, S., & Gupta, N.. (1999). Childhood disintegrative disorder.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29(6), 491-498. (Abstracts
of journal articles are available online at: www.springerlink.com.
Select "Browse Publications A-Z," go to J and scroll through the
J's until you come to Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. There
are two listings. You want the first, which is the Historical Archive of the
journal when it was published by Kluwer Publishers.)
- Volkmar, F.R. (1992). Childhood disintegrative disorder: Issues for DSM-IV.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 22, 625-642. (Abstracts
of journal articles are available online at: www.springerlink.com.
Select "Browse Publications A-Z," go to J and scroll through the
J's until you come to Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. There
are two listings. You want the first, which is the Historical Archive of the
journal when it was published by Kluwer Publishers.)
- Volkmar, F., Klin, A., Marans, W., & Cohen, D. (1997). Childhood disintegrative
disorder. In D. Cohen. & F. Volkmar (Eds.), Handbook of Autism and Pervasive
Developmental Disorders (2nd ed.) (pp. 60-93). New York:Wiley. (If this
book interests you, visit: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471716987.html)
- Volkmar, F.R., & Rutter, M. (1995). Childhood disintegrative disorder: Results
of the DSM-IV autism field trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34(8), 1092-1095. (Abstracts of JAACAP articles
are available online at: www.jaacap.com.
At the main menu, click on "Archive." Scroll down to Volume 34,
in 1995. You want the August 1995 issue, where you'll scroll through titles
until you get to this one. Click on Abstract to the right.)
- Zwaigenbaum, L. (2000, April). Case report: High functioning autism and
childhood disintegrative disorder in half brothers. Journal of Autism
and Developmental Disorders, 30(2), 121-126. (Abstracts of journal articles
are available online at: www.springerlink.com.
Select "Browse Publications A-Z," go to J and scroll through the
J's until you come to Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. There
are two listings. You want the first, which is the Historical Archive of the
journal when it was published by Kluwer Publishers.)
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Organizations That Can Help
Given the CDD is one of the disorders along the autism spectrum, with symptoms
quite similar to autism itself, you may also find useful information, assistance,
and connection to local resources at any or all of the autism-related organizations
we've listed in our companion Connections page on autism. For those
groups, we refer you to: www.nichcy.org/resources/autism.asp#orgs
In searching for information on CDD, which is extremely difficult to find
and almost always closely tied to information on autism, we ran across a "Global
Health Network Support Group" at yahoo.com. We pass this info along to
you, in case you might find it helpful, but we know nothing more about it.
Find out more about the group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Childhood_Disintegrative_Disorder/
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Teaching Students with CDD
As was said above, it's very difficult to locate information specific to CDD,
let alone materials about educating students with this rare disorder. Since
CDD is one of the disorders along the autism spectrum, with symptoms quite similar
to autism itself, appropriate educational interventions will be those similar
to what's used when educating students with autism. Therefore, we refer you
to the educational links on our Connections page on autism, at: www.nichcy.org/resources/autism.asp#education
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Spanish Materials
- Criteria for CDD in Spanish..
http://biblioteca.consultapsi.com/DSM/Dsmdes.htm
This link will take you to the DSM criteria in Spanish (courtesy of a site
in Argentina) for all five of the disorders under the umbrella of PDD.
- Trastorno Desintegrativo de la Niñez.
http://www.autismo.com/scripts/articulo/smuestra.idc?n=nichcy
This is a translation of NICHCY's briefing paper on PDD. Scroll down and
find the description of childhood disintegration disorder and the DSM-IV
criteria for it. The rest of the paper will be helpful as well, as the treatments
for CDD and PDD are similar.
- A brief description in Spanish.
www.uam.es/personal_pdi/psicologia/adarraga/studs/
autismo/trastorno%20desintegrativo.htm
The link above will take you to a short description of CDD in Spanish. Then
click on the "Forward" link at the bottom, and go to a comparison
of CDD with other disorders (Comparación con Otros Trastornos).
- The Spanish version of "When your child is diagnosed with an autism
spectrum disorder."
www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/fspanish.html
"Cuando su niño/niña es diagnosticado con alguno de los
desórdenes en la gama del autismo" is the Spanish title of this
publication from the Indiana Resource Center for Autism.
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information is copyright free.
Readers are encouraged to copy and share it, but please credit the National
Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY). |
NICHCY Connections pages are
published in response to questions from individuals and organizations
that contact us. We encourage you to share
your ideas and feedback with us!
Project Director:
Suzanne Ripley
Research Specialists: Sarah Escowitz & Yojanna Cuenca, NICHCY
Author/Editor: Lisa Küpper, NICHCY
NICHCY thanks our Project Officer, Dr. Peggy Cvach, at the Office of Special
Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education. |
| Publication
of this Web resource page is made possible through Cooperative Agreement
#H326N030003 between the Academy for Educational Development and the Office
of Special Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education. The
contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views or policies
of the Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial
products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. |
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