Stefan C. Dombrowski, Ph.D.

Updates and expands instruction on conducting psychoeducational assessments of children in grades K-12

The second edition of this textbook provides expanded and updated guidance on the process of psychoeducational assessment and report writing for children in grades K-12. It casts the entire process within a newly proposed evidence-based psychoeducational assessment and report writing framework, and explains how to convey results through detailed, well-written reports. The new edition guides readers, step by step, through the assessment process – collecting data, writing reports, and communicating conclusions – for students with conditions spanning the range of IDEA classifications. Chapters offer a broad understanding of assessment and communication skills as well as the ethical, legal, cultural, and professional considerations that come with psychoeducational evaluation. In addition, chapters significantly expand on the coverage of learning disabilities, autism spectrum, intellectual disabilities, gifted, and other health-impaired and emotional disturbance assessment. The text updates sample reports from the previous edition, offering annotated commentary in the report explaining salient points and major decisions, and incorporates additional report samples to demonstrate fully the assessment and report writing process.

Key topics addressed in the revised and expanded edition include:

• Psychoeducational assessment and report writing in school and clinic settings.
• Interview formats from various perspectives, including caregivers/parents, teachers, and students.
• Assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse youth.
• Assessment of social, emotional, behavioral and mental health difficulties that may affect students’ educational functioning.
• Common academic difficulties, including reading, writing and mathematics.
• Common recommendations and accommodations for behavioral, social, emotional, and learning needs.
• Incorporation of response-to-intervention/curriculum based assessment data into the psychoeducational report.

Provides a single source compilation of topics that typically have been overlooked by broader textbooks on child psychopathology

During the past several decades, interest in children’s psychological disorders has grown steadily within the research community, resulting in a burgeoning knowledge base. The majority of the attention and funding, not surprisingly, has focused on the more prevalent and well-known conditions. Although this raises the odds that young people with more well-known disorders such as ADHD, autism, and learning disorders will receive much-needed professional assessment and intervention, children with less frequently encountered disorders may experience a higher risk of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment.

Useful data has been scattered throughout the literature for severe-but-less-frequent childhood psychological disorders, including: fire setting; gender identity disorder; impulse control disorders (i.e., kleptomania, trichotillomania, intermittent explosive disorder); selective mutism; Munchausen by proxy; childhood schizophrenia; gang involvement; sexual offending; self-injurious behavior; and feral children. This concise volume offers up-to-date information on these conditions, which, though relatively rare, may have profound effect not only on the children themselves but also their families, friends, and the community at large. Coverage of each disorder is presented in an accessible format covering:

• Overview and history
• Description and diagnostic classification, with proposed changes to the DSM-V
• Etiology and theory
• Assessment tools and interview protocols
• Commonly used psychological and pharmacological treatment options
• Current research issues and directions for future investigation

This book provides evidence that maternal fever during pregnancy is linked with adverse behavioral, temperamental, and academic outcomes in children. Maternal fever during pregnancy, particularly during the second trimester, is thought to have an adverse impact on the development of the central nervous system (CNS) resulting in abnormalities of behavior and temperament that can be observed in childhood. These outcomes tend to remain clinically silent at birth and often evade detection until later in development when the cognitive, social and language requirements of life become more complex and demanding. This finding is consistent with the gestational influenza-schizophrenia association which is also extensively reviewed in this book. Maternal fever during pregnancy appears to be one prenatal insult among the growing list of prenatal exposures that might contribute to less than optimal developmental effects. With its clear writing style yet rigorous scientific approach, this book is a must-have resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, medical professionals, educational professionals, social workers as well as researchers and graduate students in these areas.

Psychological and Educational Consequences for Children

The first attempt to bring together the full range of prenatal events that have been shown to affect childhood psychopathologies

Witten at a technical level that can be assimilated by child psychologists, child psychologists in training, and related personnel from other disciplines

Contains a glossary of medical and neurological terms to aid in making the technical matters more comprehensible for non-specialists