Autism is one of the five disorders that falls under the umbrella of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a category of neurological disorders characterized by "severe and pervasive impairment in several areas of development." ASD is characterized by varying degrees of impairment in communication skills, social interaction and restricted, repetitive stereot...

Pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) is the most common and least satisfactory of the PDD diagnoses. It is not formally operationalized, which limits its reliability and has hampered attempts to assess its validity. We aimed, first, to improve the reliability and replicability of PDD-NOS by operationalizing its DSM-IV-TR description and, second, to test its validit...

objectives: the aim of this research is to compare cognitive flexibility and adjustment between two groups of students with developmental coordination disorder (dcd) and typically developing students. methods: for this purpose, 50 students with dcd and 50 typically developing students were chosen among 12 primary schools. the developmental coordination disorder questionnaire (dcd-q), adjustment...

Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs), also known as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that include autistic disorder, Asperger’s Disorder, PDDnot otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) and Rett’s syndrome. PDDs involve delay and disorder in the development of communication and language skills, social interaction wit...

Rett disorder and autistic disorder are both pervasive developmental disorders. Recent studies indicate that at least 80% of Rett Disorder cases are caused by mutations in the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) gene. Since there is some phenotypic overlap between autistic disorder and Rett disorder, we analyzed 69 females clinically diagnosed with autistic disorder for the presence of mutatio...

Within modern philosophy of biology the topic of mechanistic explanation has become a central theme for critical discussion. The neo-mechanical philosophers have developed accounts that emphasize intervention and manipulation as the central epistemic tools that allow gaining epistemic access upon the mechanisms and have argued that the processes of inter-field integration across disciplines can...

In recent years, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have moved from institutionalized settings to local community residences. While deinstitutionalization has yielded quality of life improvements for people with IDD, this transition presents significant health-related challenges. Community clinicians have typically not been trained to provide sound medical care to peo...