This article summarizes current knowledge about language and communication impairments in children who have autism spectrum disorders. It reviews the language profiles that may be observed during the toddler and preschool years and in school-aged children and discusses receptive and expressive language skills that may be quite variable across the spectrum and the universal impairments in pragma...

OBJECTIVE To study the relationship between child psychiatric disorders and quality of life (QoL). METHOD In a sample of 310 children (ages 6-18 years) referred for psychiatric problems, children, parents, and clinicians reported on psychopathology and subjective and objective QoL indicators. RESULTS Six diagnostic categories were distinguished: attention-deficit and disruptive behavior dis...

Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PPD) refers to the group of disorders characterised by delayed or inappropriate development of multiple basic functions including socialisation, communication, behaviour and cognitive functioning. The term,,autistic spectrum disorders" was established as a result of the magnitude of the intensity of symptoms and their proportions observed in all types of perva...

A proposal is made to recognise pathological demand avoidance syndrome (PDA) as a separate entity within the pervasive developmental disorders, instead of being classed under "pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified" (PDDnos, DSM-IV). Discriminant functions analysis shows PDA to be significantly different on many counts from classic autism and Asperger's syndrome, both separate...