Observed patterns of clinically salient behavior show promise for advancing developmentally-informed characterization of disruptive behavior within the preschool period.

The multidomain, multicontext approach of the DB-DOS is a valid method for direct assessment of preschool disruptive behavior. This approach shows promise for enhancing accurate identification of clinically significant disruptive behavior in young children and for characterizing subtypes in a manner that can directly inform etiological and intervention research.

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Two months following perinatal loss, 82 mothers out of a total of 205 whose infants died at a tertiary referral obstetrical hospital and 47 of their partners were assessed with regard to their reactions to the deaths of their infants. Sample to population comparisons indicated that those who participated in the investigation were more likely to be socially advantaged. Intensity of mothers' grief exceeded fathers', but in roughly 25% of cases fathers' grief exceeded mothers. Mothers with higher self‐reports of ego strength reported lower intensity of grief. Fathers with less ego strength, less social support, and more stressful life events had significantly higher self‐reported grief. A subgroup of parents who reported minimal grief was identified and characterized. Implitions of these findings for research on reactions to perinatal loss are discussed.

Background-Diagnostic validity of oppositional defiant and conduct disorders (ODD and CD) for preschoolers has been questioned based on concerns regarding the ability to differentiate normative, transient disruptive behavior from clinical symptoms. Data on concurrent validity has

This paper presents the clinical/developmental framework underlying a new diagnostic observational tool, the Disruptive Behavior Diagnostic Observation Schedule (DB-DOS). The special importance of observation for clinical assessment during the preschool period is delineated. The developmental rationale for a multi-dimensional assessment of disruptive behavior in young children, including problems in modulation of negative affect and low competence is discussed. The ways in which the DB-DOS will elucidate distinctions between normative and atypical behavior during this developmental period via (a) the integration of qualitative and quantitative dimensions of behavior within a clinically-sensitive coding system, (b) the observation of child behavior both within, and outside of, the parent-child context and (c) the use of specially designed tasks to "press" for clinically salient behaviors are addressed. The promise of this new method for yielding a more precise, developmentally based description of the phenotype of early onset disruptive behavior problems and for providing a standardized clinical tool for observational assessment of disruptive behavior in young children is presented. Large-scale validation of the measure is currently underway.

In children with congenital toxoplasmosis and bilateral macular disease (group 2) because of toxoplasmic chorioretinitis, scaled scores were lowest on timed tests that require discrimination of fine intersecting lines. Although the severity of ocular and neurologic involvement is often congruent in children with congenital toxoplasmosis, ophthalmologic involvement seems to account for certain specific limitations on tests of cognitive function. Children with such visual impairment compensate with higher verbal skills, but their verbal scores are still less than those of children with normal vision, and in some cases significantly so, indicating that vision impairment might affect other aspects of cognitive testing. Patterns of difficulties noted in the subscales indicate that certain compensatory intervention strategies to facilitate learning and performance may be particularly helpful for children with these impairments. These patterns also provide a basis for the development of measures of cognitive function independent of visual impairment.