Medicina
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The aim of the study is to demonstrate the need to apply an assessment methodology in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) due to the lack of agreement between parents and teachers on the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). ⋯ As a result, a low concordance was observed between the observations obtained from the DSM-5 between parents and teachers.
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With the upsurge of community uptake in population-based early screening for autism, the main obstacle to increasing access to early treatment and intervention services is the extremely limited access to high quality diagnosis, specifically the shortage of expert clinicians. Diagnostic evaluation models deployed by academic centers of excellence, which typically require the investment of 6-10 hours by specialized multidisciplinary teams, is not a viable solution to the vast needs of communities, resulting in parents' "diagnostic odysseys" and delays, often of several years, for treatment, interventions and supports. Biomarker-based objective procedures for early diagnosis and assessment of autism are now available, clinically validated, and cleared for broad implementation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ⋯ Such solutions, however, will require change in entrenched models of diagnostic care, and aggressive prioritization of the needs of the community at large. If these innovations are successful, the number of children diagnosed in the first three years of life will double or triple. This will, in turn, require much greater investments in resources for treatment, including massive workforce training of providers capable of delivering community-viable caregiver-mediated interventions, and of early educators capable of serving autistic children in therapeutic inclusive preschool settings.
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Sleep disorders are common in children and affect neurological development with important cognitive, emotional and behavioral repercussions. There is a high prevalence of sleep disorders (SD) in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Sleep disorders in pediatric population have a prevalence of 6-25%, while in children with NDD this number rises to 50-80%. ⋯ Disturbances in the circadian rhythm as well as respiratory sleep disorders are also observed. Consequently, there is a decrease in alertness for daytime activities with increased behavioral disorders, emotional problems and academic difficulties associated with executive and memory dysfunctions. Sleep assessment has to be a systemic part in the clinical evaluation of children with NDDs, so as to give a convenient diagnosis and treatment in each case, allowing to improve the quality of life of children and their families.
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The population of children with slow emergence of language development varies widely, both in their initial profile and in their response to intervention. In this sense, there is a group of late talkers who continue to show persistent language difficulties, in some cases exhibiting signs compatible with verbal dyspraxia. ⋯ The different response to intervention contributes to diagnostic decision making and the early implementation of specific strategies directed to improve speech learning skills by incorporating motor learning principles. The few studies of intervention in suspected verbal dyspraxia in early childhood offer promising results on a variety of speech assessment indicators, and provide practitioners with valuable information with which to support the intervention in this population.
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Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) are Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ND) that frequently coexist together and have etiological, biological, and clinical factors in common. The comorbidity of both neurodevelopmental disorders is associated with a delay or lack of ASD diagnosis and the development of perceptual, emotional, cognitive and behavioral alterations related to Emotional Dysregulation (ED) is common. ⋯ The clinical presentation of the association of ASD and ADHD, the association with ED, differentiation of BPD, and evaluation and intervention are here analyzed. The comorbidity ASD, ADHD, ED is a more severe disorder associated to polypharmacology and hospital admissions.