Developmental Monitoring and Referral for Low-Income Children Served by WIC: Program Development and Implementation Outcomes.

Objective: To develop, implement, and assess implementation outcomes for a developmental monitoring and referral program for children in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

Methods: Based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Learn the Signs. Act Early.

The impact of the medical home on access to care for children with autism spectrum disorders.

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience difficulty accessing health care services. Using parent-reported data from the 2009-2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, we examined whether having a medical home reduces unmet need for specialty care services for children with ASD (n = 3,055). Descriptive statistics and Chi square tests identified sample characteristics and examined the relationship between unmet needs and a standardized measure of medical home.

Health care transition services for youth with autism spectrum disorders.

Objective: Little is known about accessibility to health care transition (HCT) services (HCT) for youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This study examined how often youth with ASD receive HCT services and how access varied by individual, family, and health system characteristics.

Method: Questionnaires were completed by 101 parents of youth with ASD (ages 12-17 years) enrolled in a national online autism registry.

The relationship between the medical home and unmet needs for children with autism spectrum disorders.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between having access to a medical home and unmet needs for specialty care services for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Parents of children enrolled in a national autism registry were invited to complete an online Access to Care Questionnaire. The resulting sample consisted of 371 parents-child dyads.

Disparities in transition planning for youth with autism spectrum disorder.

Objective: Little is known about accessibility to health care transition (HCT) services for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study expands our understanding by examining the receipt of HCT services in youth with ASD compared with youth with other special health care needs (OSHCN).

Methods: We used the 2005-2006 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs to examine receipt of HCT services for youth (aged 12-17 years) with ASD and youth with OSHCN.

Multisystemic therapy for disruptive behavior problems in youths with autism spectrum disorders: a progress report.

Youths with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often engage in serious disruptive behaviors that interfere with their ability to successfully manage day-to-day responsibilities and contribute to relationship problems with caregivers, peers, and teachers. Effective treatments are needed to address the factors linked with disruptive behavior problems in this population of youths. Multisystemic therapy (MST) is a comprehensive family- and community-based treatment approach that has been effective with other difficult-to-treat populations of youths and holds promise for youths with ASD.

Consultative care coordination through the medical home for CSHCN: a randomized controlled trial.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a care coordination intervention aimed at improving the medical home for children with special health care needs (CSHCN). 100 CSHCN referred by a Medicaid managed care plan were randomly assigned to a care coordination intervention or to a wait list comparison group that received standard care. For the intervention group, a care coordinator supported the medical home by consulting with primary care providers at multiple practices to develop an integrated, individualized plan to meet child and family needs.

Psychotropic medication use among children with autism spectrum disorders enrolled in a national registry, 2007-2008.

Patterns of current psychotropic medication use among 5,181 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) enrolled in a Web-based registry were examined. Overall, 35% used at least one psychotropic medication, most commonly stimulants, neuroleptics, and/or antidepressants. Those who were uninsured or exclusively privately insured were less likely to use >or=3 medications than were those insured by Medicaid.

Diagnostic and assessment findings: a bridge to academic planning for children with autism spectrum disorders.

Increasing numbers of children diagnosed and treated for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has impacted both neuropsychologists and educators. Though both play key evaluative and treatment roles, there is no available method or process in place enabling the translation of the neuropsychological report recommendations into a format educational teams can easily use, leading to a gap between neuropsychological recommendations and educational planning. In the following, we review the areas evaluated by a neuropsychologist when assessing a child with an ASD, discuss the domains targeted by educational teams when designing an educational plan, and then present a process that has met with some success creating a "bridge" between the diagnostic/assessment process and the subsequent academic planning.

Development and validation of a measure of dysmorphology: useful for autism subgroup classification.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) comprise a class of neurodevelopmental disorders that can originate from a variety of genetic and environmental causes. To delineate autism's heterogeneity we have looked for biologically-based phenotypes found in consistent proportions of ASD individuals. One informative phenotype is that of generalized dysmorphology, based on whole body examinations by medical geneticists trained in the nuances of anomalous embryologic development.

Parenting stress and its relationship to the behavior of children with Joubert syndrome.

This study describes the relationship between parenting stress and behavior in children with Joubert syndrome, a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder. Parents (N = 43) reported severely impaired child adaptive behaviors. Most children did not show maladaptive behaviors, but a subset of approximately 20% displayed significant problems in areas such as inattention, overactivity, social withdrawal, and atypical behaviors.

Oromotor and communication findings in joubert syndrome: further evidence of multisystem apraxia.

This study provides descriptive information in the areas of oromotor abilities and communication to better understand the spectrum of disability in individuals with Joubert syndrome. Participants included 21 individuals with the diagnosis of Joubert syndrome (mean age 10.45 years).

Comprehensive primary care for children with special health care needs in rural areas.

Objective: Most research on comprehensive primary care interventions for children with chronic health conditions has been conducted in large urban areas, where child health and related services are readily available. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and impact of a medical home demonstration project in a more rural part of the country.

Methods: Fifty-one parents of children with special health care needs participated in a pre-/posttreatment assessment of a program designed to enhance comprehensive and coordinated care.

Childhood-onset multiple sclerosis and mood disorders: a case study.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is rare in children. Little research exists regarding emotional and behavioral disorders in childhood-onset MS, despite the occurrence of such problems in adults with MS. This paper describes the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of a boy diagnosed with MS at age 9 and mood disorder at age 10.

Primary care supports for children with chronic health conditions: identifying and predicting unmet family needs.

Objective: To examine unmet needs among families of children with chronic health conditions treated in primary care settings and to identify predictors of these needs.

Method: Primary care physicians referred 83 caregivers of children with chronic health conditions. Mothers completed the Family Needs Survey, as well as other measures of child and family functioning.

Rural versus urban social support seeking as a moderating variable in traumatic brain injury outcome.

Objective: To investigate personal beliefs about seeking social support following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the relationship of these appraisals to demographic and injury variables, social integration, and quality of life ratings.

Setting: The central region of a Midwest state.

Participants: Fifty-six adults with TBI who were more than 6 months postinjury and living in the community.

Memory functioning following traumatic brain injury in children with premorbid learning problems.

This study examines the memory functioning of 25 children who sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and who had prior learning problems, 48 children with TBI who did not have prior learning problems, and 23 noninjured controls. The children with TBI and prior learning problems displayed significantly worse memory abilities than both the control participants and the children with TBI and no prior learning problems. They differed significantly from these 2 groups on measures of general memory, verbal memory, sound-symbol learning, and attention.

Injury risk factors in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Processes related to injury in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were examined. Two groups of 7-11-year-old boys (14 ADHD and 16 controls) watched a videotape simulating play activities in order for them to identify risky behaviors and then answered questions about risky scenes. Groups did not differ in ability to identify hazards, but children with ADHD anticipated less severe consequences following risky behavior and reported fewer active methods of preventing injury than did controls.