Developmental Child Psychopathology

Catalog description

The course will furnish students with a comprehensive account of the characteristics, correlates, causes, contexts, and outcomes of psychopathology in children. It serves to augment students’ understanding of specific conditions in childhood and adolescence including autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, mental retardation, childhood anxiety/depression, enuresis/encopresis, learning disabilities, communication disorders including selective mutism, and emotional/behavioral disorders. The diagnostic nosologies of the DSM and IDEA will be referenced and thoroughly discussed. A special emphasis upon a developmental-systems framework for understanding child psychopathology will be presented wherein the importance of context and the influence of multiple, interacting events and processes in shaping adaptive and maladaptive development will be investigated.