Exceptional Children and Disability Information
Autism
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
- Overview of Childhood disintegrative disorder : Childhood disintegrative disorder is a condition occurring in 3- and 4-year-olds who have developed normally to age 2. Over several months, a child with this disorder will deteriorate in intellectual, social, and language functioning from previously normal behavior.
- Criteria and clinical features : This rather rare condition was described many years before autism (Heller, 1908) but has only recently been 'officially' recognized. With CDD children develop a condition which resembles autism but only after a relatively prolonged period (usually 2 to 4 years) of clearly normal development
- Overview : a very thorough overview of childhood disintegrative disorder.
- Symptoms :Although apparently rare the condition probably has frequently been incorrectly diagnosed. The following is prominent with the condition...
- The DSM diagnostic criteria for CDD : the criteria from The Diagnostic and Statitistical Manual on the diagnosis of childhood disintegrative disorder.
- Contrast DSM criteria for CDD with the other PDD disorders: Doctors are divided on the use of the term PDD. Many professionals use the term PDD as a short way of saying PDDNOS. Some doctors, however, are hesitant to diagnose very young children with a specific type of PDD, such as Autistic Disorder, and therefore only use the general category label of PDD. This approach contributes to the confusion about the term
Research on Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
- Autism and PDD research at the Yale Child Study Center
- Want to know how to evaluate research studies?
- 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 this site.)
- 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 this site.)
- 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 this site)
- 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.
- 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 this site.)
Organizations That Can Help (Childhood Disintegrative Syndrome)
- Autism Organizations: 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.
Teaching Students with CDD
- Educating students with Autism: 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.
