Skip to main content
Log in

Differentiating pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified from autism and language disorders

  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Features useful in distinguishing choldren with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) from those with autism or language disorder were developed from a retrospective chart review using groups of children with PDD-NOS and MA-and sex-matched autistic and language-disordered groups. Charts were reviewed using a list of 80 items compiled from various sources. Items that had adequate interrater reliability and significantly discriminated the PDD-NOS cases from the language-disordered or autistic cases were then evaluated using a second set of cases and signal detection methods. Fewer items significantly discriminated cases with autism from those with PDD-NOS as compared to cases with language disorder. Clinical implications are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (1980).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, (3rd. ed.), Washington, DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association. (1987).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd., ed., rev.), Washington, DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown J. (1960). Prognosis from presenting symptoms of preschool children with atypical development.American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 30, 382–390.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti, D., & Sparrow, S. (1981). Developing criteria for establishing interrater reliability of specific items: Applications to assessment of adaptive behavior.American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 86, 127–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, D. J., Paul, R., & Volkmar, F. R. (1986). Issues in the classification of Pervasive Developmental Disorders: Toward DSM-IV.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 25, 213–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1988).Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, E. K., Cohen, D. J., & Provence, S. (1986). Atypical development: DSM-III and the pervasive developmental disorders of early onset.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 170–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleiss, J. L. (1981).Statistical methods for rates and proportions. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleiss, J. L. & Cohen, J. (1973). The equivalence of weighted kappa and the intraclass correlation coefficient as measures of reliability.Educational and Psychological Measurement, 33, 613–619.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, B. J., Schroth, P., Ritvo, E., Gurthrie, D., & Wake, L. (1980). The behavior observation scale for autism (BOS): Initial results of factor analyses.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 10, 343–346.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraemer, H. C. (1988). Assessment of 2X2 associations: Generalization of signal-detection methodology.American Statistician, 42, 37–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krug, D. A., Arick, J. R., & Almond, P. G. (1980). Behavior checklist for identifying severely handicapped individuals with high levels of autistic behavior.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 221–229.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, P. L., Cicchetti, D. V., Sznajderman, S. D., Forsyth, B. C., Baron, M. A., Fink, H. D., Czarlkowski, N., Bauchner, H., & Lustman-Findling, K. (in press). Demographic, clinical, and psychosocial predictors of the reliability of mothers' clinical judgments.Pediatrics.

  • Parks, S. L. (1983). The assessment of autistic children: A selective review of available instruments.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 13, 255–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Provence, S. & Dahl, K. (1987). Disorders of atypical development: diagnostic issues raised by a spectrum disorder. In D. J. Cohen and A. Donnellan (eds.),Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (pp. 677–689). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rank, B. (1949). Adaptation of the psychoanalytic technique for the treatment of young children with atypical development.American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 19, 130–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rescorla, L. (1986). Preschool psychiatric disorders: Diagnostic classification and symptom patterns.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 162–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegel, S., & Castellon, N. J. (1988).Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sparrow, S. S., Rescorla, L. A., Provence, S., Condon, S. O., Goudreau, D., & Cicchetti, D. (1986). Follow-up of “atypical” children — A brief report.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 25, 181–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sparrow, S. S., Balla, D., & Cicchetti, D. (1984).Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volkmar, F. R., Cicchetti, D. V., Dykens, E., Sparrow, S. S., Leckman, J. F., & Cohen, D. J. (1988). An evaluation of the autism behavior checklist.Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18, 81–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volkmar, F. R., Cohen, D. J., Hoshino, Y., Rende, R., & Paul, R. (1988). Phenomenology and classification of the childhood psychoses.Psychological Medicine, 18, 191–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (1990).International classification of disease (10th rev.). Draft chapter. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

From the Yale Child Study Center (Mayes, Volkmar, and Hooks) and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut (Cicchetti). Marla Hooks is currently affiliated with the University of Washington. This study was supported by grant M846961 from the National Institute of Mental Health, by grant HD-03008 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, by NIMH grant MH-30929 to the Mental Health Clinical Research Center, and grant MRIS-1416 to the Veterans Administration. The authors thank Helena Kraemer for her provision of the QROC program.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mayes, L., Volkmar, F., Hooks, M. et al. Differentiating pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified from autism and language disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 23, 79–90 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066420

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066420

Keywords

Navigation