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Intellectual impairments in preschoolers have been widely studied. A regularity that emerges is that children's intellectual impairments have an important impact on later adjustments in life. However, few studies have looked at the intellectual profiles of young psychiatric outpatients. This study aimed to describe the intelligence profile of preschoolers referred to psychiatry for various cognitive and behavioral problems in terms of verbal, nonverbal, and full-scale IQ and to examine their association with diagnoses. Three hundred four clinical records from young children aged under 7 years and 3 months who consulted at an outpatient psychiatric clinic and who had one intellectual assessment with a Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence were reviewed. Verbal IQ (VIQ), Nonverbal IQ (NVIQ), and Full-scale IQ (FSIQ) were extracted. Hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward's method was employed to organize data into groups. The children had, on average, a FSIQ of 81, which is significantly lower than that expected in the general population. Four clusters were identified by the hierarchical clusters analysis. Three were characterized by low, average, and high intellectual ability. The last cluster was characterized by a verbal deficit. Findings also revealed that children's diagnoses were not related to any specific cluster, except for children with an intellectual disability with, as expected, low abilities. Children referred to an intellectual assessment in an early childhood mental health clinic showed an altered intellectual development, more specifically in the verbal domain.

Background: Some data call into question the persistence of developmental language disorders (DLDs) identified during the preschool period. For this reason, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often reassess children. However, it is unclear if the instability of the profiles documented in community sample studies is present in children referred to specialized clinics. Given the scarcity of SLP resources, is re-evaluating the language skills of these children a good use of clinical time? Aim: To examine the stability of the findings from two SLP assessments in a sample of Canadian preschool children referred to a tertiary clinic between the ages of 2 and 6 years. It was hypothesized that children under the age of 4 years at first assessment and children with less severe initial deficits would show less stability of DLD diagnosis. Methods & Procedures: The clinical files of children referred to an early childhood psychiatric clinic in Canada were reviewed. For 149 children with two SLPs assessment reports, persistence of language deficits was documented and tested with McNemar's statistics. Differences between preschoolers under the age of 4 versus 4 years and over, as well as between mildly and severely impaired children, were examined. Outcomes & Results: High level of agreement (94%) and McNemar's test (p = 0.180) supported the stability of initial diagnosis. The stability for children assessed before the age of 4 (n = 64) was 100%, and was significantly different from older children's (n = 85) stability of 89% (Fisher's exact test, p = 0.01; bilateral). The stability for children with mild impairments (n = 18) was 78%, which was significantly lower than the stability (97%) in children with severe impairments (n = 114) (Fisher's exact test, p = 0.007; bilateral). Conclusions & Implications: No instability of language status was observed in children assessed before 4 years of age, which could be related to the significant severity of the difficulties that children in this age group presented and be specific to this type of clinical sample. The great stability of language status observed in preschoolers referred to a specialized clinic suggests that clinicians should limit reassessments to devote available resources to intervention efforts.

A review of clinical records was conducted for children with developmental, emotional, and behavioral difficulties who were assessed with both the Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence-third edition (WPPSI-III[superscript CDN]; Wechsler, 2004) and the Leiter international performance scale--revised (Leiter-R; Roid & Miller, 1997) within the same psychological evaluation. Forty children, ages 3-7, were included in this study. Pearson correlations showed that the IQ scores of the two instruments are strongly related (r > 0.70; p < 0.001). However, paired t-tests showed that overall Leiter-R scores (M = 99.03) were significantly higher than WPPSI-III[superscript CDN] scores (PIQ; M = 82.28, FSIQ; M = 75.24) (p < 0.001). The discrepancies between the instrument's scores were clinically important as the use of only one of the two instruments could result in misclassification of child intellectual ability. These results should prompt professionals working with this clinical population to be cautious when using results from a single instrument in a child's intellectual evaluation.

For children with special needs, integration into childcare services is essential, notably because it promotes their development. Yet, in Quebec, very few places available are actually occupied by these children. Their low representation in these environments could be due to the educators' beliefs, which may also influence their adaptation. The goal of the present study is to explore the perspective of educators regarding the adjustment of 173 children from a clinical population. Educators' responses to the question 'Does the child benefit from the daycare?' were coded as positive, nuanced, or negative. The children's social competence was assessed by the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation scale (SCBE; LaFreniere et al., 1995). Most perceptions were positive (71%). Analysis of the factors influencing educators' perceptions revealed a significant association with social competence and child diagnosis, but not with type of daycare. Thus, the educators mostly perceive integration of children with special needs positively. Keywords: Educators perceptions, Children with special needs, Integration, Preschoolers, Social competence Pour les enfants ayant des besoins particuliers, l'integration au prescolaire est essentielle, puisqu'elle permet de promouvoir leur developpement. Pourtant, au Quebec, ils occupent peu des places disponibles et leur faible representation pourrait etre due aux croyances des educatrices, ces croyances pouvant egalement influencer leur adaptation. Cette etude explore les perceptions des educatrices quant a l'adaptation de 173 enfants d'une population clinique, par leur reponse a la question << L'enfant profite-t-il de la garderie? >>. Les reponses sont codifiees selon qu'elles refletent des perceptions positives, nuancees ou negatives. Le Profil socio-affectif (PSA) de LaFreniere et al. (1997) a servi a mesurer la competence sociale des enfants. La majorite des perceptions est positive (71 %). L'analyse des facteurs d'influence de la perception revele des associations significatives avec la competence sociale de l'enfant et son diagnostic, mais pas avec le type de milieu frequente. Les educatrices percoivent majoritairement les enfants vus en pedopsychiatrie comme profitant de la garderie. Mots-cles : perceptions des educatrices, enfants ayant des besoins particuliers, integration, prescolaire, competence sociale, Introduction Au Quebec, depuis la mise en place en 1977 de l'allocation pour l'integration des enfants handicapes (AIEH) (ministere de la Famille et des Aines [MFA], 2008), on observe une [...]

Many mental disorders (MD) share common etiology, fuelling debates about the specificity of clinical categories and whether the presence of specific risk factors (RF) can distinguish among them. The study of developmental language disorder (DLD), more specifically, has been further hindered by a lack of consensus regarding its definition. These limitations increase the risk of under-detection and lifelong consequences for affected children. This paper aims (1) to document which individual RF allow differentiating DLD from other MD and (2) to compare the cumulative RF between children with DLD versus other MD. This case-control design study used medical records of a psychiatric sample of 795 preschoolers (mean age 4:11, 75% boys). A logistic regression measured the predictive value of potential RF on DLD. Later first sentences, maternal immigration and family history of language delay were identified as significant in explaining 30% of the variance for DLD diagnosis. An ANCOVA revealed that children with DLD were exposed to a significantly higher number of RF than were children with other MD. Public health policies informed with the knowledge of specific RF associated with DLD, and their cumulative impact, could improve early detection and reduce the cascade of negative consequences associated with DLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]