[Infants and Young Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders.]

This newsletter issue presents five articles addressing intervention with infants and toddlers having pervasive developmental disabilities. The first article is by Stanley I. Greenspan and is titled "Reconsidering the Diagnosis and Treatment of Very Young Children with Autistic Spectrum or Pervasive Developmental Disorder." This article explains a developmental model of these disorders, a treatment approach which has demonstrated substantial success, and principles of intervention. The second article is by Serena Wieder and is titled "Opening the Door: Approaches To Engage Children with Multisystem Developmental Disorders." It considers characteristics of these children, the meaning of early behavior, ways to foster these children's learning of new meanings and play skills, the development of symbolic functioning, and related therapies. The third article is a detailed case study by Rebecca Shahmoon Shanok, titled "Simon: Intensive, Multi-faceted Therapy with a Developmentally Delayed Little Boy." Next, Barbara Kalmanson, in "Diagnosis and Treatment of Infants and Young Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders," focuses on the parent's subjective experiences of this type of child and ways to help these parents develop effective parent-child relationships. The last article is "Approaches to the Development of Social Communication in Foster Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorder" by Jaswinder Kaur Ghuman and Wendy G. Kates. Also included are excerpts from a new book "Heart Start: The Emotional Foundations of School Readiness." (DB)