Psychological and Developmental Assessment: Children with Disabilities and Chronic Conditions

This volume presents an integrative framework for conducting individualized assessments of children and adolescents with a wide range of disabilities and chronic conditions. Expert contributors first provide an overview of the field, reviewing general strategies and approaches to developmental assessment. The volume then addresses the issues that arise in working with young people with particular challenges, including motor impairments, auditory and visual impairments, autism, chronic health conditions, neurological problems, and exposure to trauma. Described are concepts and tools to guide the practitioner in deriving an accurate diagnosis, planning appropriate interventions in clinic or school, evaluating progress, and monitoring treatment outcomes. Structured in a cohesive format, chapters review the nature of each condition and its implications for health, development, and functioning at different ages and in various domains. The uses of specific assessment instruments are considered, and needed modifications in settings, tasks, and procedures identified. Emphasizing methods that are flexible and multidimensional, the volume includes numerous illustrative case vignettes.

Rune J. Simeonsson, PhD, MSPH, is Professor of Education and Research Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Adjunct Professor of Medical Psychology at Duke University. He teaches graduate courses in the areas of psychological assessment and child development and disability for students in school psychology and special education. His research interests are in the areas of child development, special education, and public health, focusing on the prevention of childhood disability and the promotion of child health and development. He currently has responsibilities as an investigator with several projects, and is actively involved in policy and research on the definition and classification of disability in the United States and internationally.

Susan L. Rosenthal, PhD, obtained her doctorate in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She completed her pediatric psychology internship at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and her postdoctoral fellowship in psychology at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Rosenthal is currently Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Psychology and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Texas at Galveston. Before assuming her present position, she was Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and Pediatric Psychologist at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her clinical practice focuses on helping adolescents and their families negotiate the developmental tasks of adolescence in the context of chronic illness, mood disorders, or other life stressors. Her research on adolescent psychosexual development has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, and she has authored numerous articles on adolescent psychological development and the role of the family in protecting adolescent girls from risk.