Chapter 13: Childhood Disorders

Question 1

What should clinicians consider before making a particular diagnosis in a child?

Answer 1

Clinicians must first consider what is typicalfor a particular age.

Question 2

Describe the field of developmental psychopathology

Answer 2

It focuses on the disorders of childhood within the context of life-span development, enabling us to identify behaviors that are considered appropriate at one stage but disturbed at another

Question 3

What are the two broad domains of childhood disorders?

Answer 3

Externalizing disorders and internalizing disorders

Question 4

What are externalizing disorders?

Answer 4

These are characterized by more outward directed behaviors, such as aggressiveness, noncompliance, overactivity, and impulsiveness; the category includes attention- deficit or hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder.

Question 5

What are internalizing disorders?

Answer 5

These are characterized by more inward focused experiences and behaviors, such as depression, social withdrawal, and anxiety; the category includes childhood anxiety and mood disorders.

Question 6

Describe children with ADHD

Answer 6

Children with ADHD seem to have particular difficulty controlling their activity in situations that call for sitting still, such as in the classroom or at meal times. They also have difficulty getting along with beers and establishing friendships. They know what the socially correct action is in hypothetical situations but is unable to translate this knowledge into appropriate behavior in real life social interactions.

Question 7

What is the difference between ADHD and conduct disorder?

Answer 7

Children with ADHD act out less in school and elsewhere and are less likely to be aggressive and to have antisocial parents. They have lots of family hostility and are at less risk for delinquency and substance abuse in adolescence compared to children with conduct disorder

Question 8

What internalizing these orders frequently co-occur with ADHD?

Answer 8

Anxiety and depression

Question 9

What are the genetic factors of ADHD?

Answer 9

The heritability estimates as high as 70% to 80%.
Two different dopamine genes have been implicated in ADHD: dopamine receptor gene called the DRD4 and a dopamine transporter DAT1 but DRD4 is more strongly associated with ADHD as several different studies have consistently found a relationship between this gene and ADHD.

Question 10

What are the neurobiological factors of ADHD?

Answer 10

Studies suggest that children with ADHD have smaller areas in their brain linked to the neurotransmitter dopamine such as the caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, and frontal lobes than children without ADHD.

Question 11

What are the perinatal and prenatal factors in children with ADHD?

Answer 11

Low birth weight is a predictor of the development of ADHD however it can be mitigated by greater maternal warmth. The impact of substances such as tobacco and alcohol are also protective of ADHD symptoms.

Question 12

What are the stimulant medications for ADHD?

Answer 12

Methylphenidate, Ritalin, and medications approved by the food and drug administration or FDA: Adderall, Concerta, and Strattera.
These drugs are used to treat ADHD reduces disruptive behavior and improve ability to concentrate

Question 13

What is the psychological treatment for children with ADHD?

Answer 13

Parent training and changes in classroom management demonstrates a short term success.
Intensive behavioral therapy may be as effective as Ritalin combined with a less intensive behavioral therapy

Question 14

Define conduct disorder

Answer 14

The DSM-5 criteria for CD focuses on behaviors that violate the basic rights of others and violate major societal norms. These behaviors include aggression and cruelty toward people or animals, damaging property, lying, and stealing. Often the behavior is marked by callousness, viciousness, and lack of remorse.

Question 15

Discuss oppositional defiant disorder or or or DD

Answer 15

It is a less understood externalizing disorder in the DSM-IV-TR. ODD is diagnosed if a child does not meet the criteria for conduct disorder most especially, extreme physical aggressiveness both exhibits such behaviors as losing his or her temper, arguing with adults, repeatedly refusing to comply with requests from adults, deliberately doing things to annoy others, and being angry, spiteful, touchy, or vindictive.

Question 16

What are the other comorbid disorders with conduct disorder?

Answer 16

Substance use disorder, other internalizing disorders, anxiety and depression.

Question 17

What are the psychological factors of conduct disorder?

Answer 17

Children with conduct disorder or deficient in moral awareness, lacking remorse for their wrongdoing. They also imitate aggressive acts seen elsewhere and since aggression is often an effective, albeit unpleasant, means of achieving a goal, it is likely to be reinforced and thus maintained.
Harsh and inconsistent discipline and lack of monitoring are consistently associated with conduct problems in children.

Question 18

What are the peer influences of children with conduct disorder

Answer 18

Children with conduct disorder choose to associate with like-minded fears thud continuing on their antisocial behavior and is around with deviant fears to initiate antisocial behavior

Question 19

What are the social cultural factors of conduct disorder?

Answer 19

Poverty , urban living, unemployment, poor educational facilities, disruptive family life, and asubculture.

Question 20

What are the treatments of conduct disorder?

Answer 20

Family interventions: parent management training in which parents are thought the modify the responses to their children so that prosocial rather than antisocial behavior is consistently rewarded. It’s beneficial effects persist for 1 to 3 years
Multisystemic treatment: involves delivery intensive and comprehensive therapy services in the community. It is based on the view that conduct problems are influenced by multiple factors within the family as well as between the family and other social systems.

Question 21

Define learning disabilities

Answer 21

It is a condition in which a person shows a problem in a specific area of academic, language, speech, or motor skills it is not due to intellectual developmental disorder or deficient educational opportunities.

Question 22

What are the three categories of learning disabilities according to DSM

Answer 22

Learning disabilities is not used by a DSM but is used by most mental health professionals to group together three categories of disorders that do appear in DSM:learning disorders, communication disorders and motor disorders

Question 23

Define dyslexia

Answer 23

Dyslexia involves significant difficulty with word recognition, reading comprehension, and typically written in spelling as well.

Question 24

What is the etiology of dyslexia?

Answer 24

Genes play a bigger role in dyslexia among children whose parents have more education compared to children who have less education

It is believed that core differences in dyslexia include problems in language processing and many of the processes fall under what is called phonological awareness which is believed to be critical to the development of reading skills.

Question 25

What are the three lobes in the brain involved in dyslexia?

Answer 25

Parietal lobe, frontal lobe, temperature lobe

Question 26

Define Dyscalculia

Answer 26

It involves difficulty in producing or understanding numbers, quantities, or basic arithmetic operations.