Detailed contribution information
| Contribution title | Early struggles – The relationship of psychopathology and development in early childhood. |
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| Contribution code | D3.093 |
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| Form of presentation | Poster |
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| Abstract |
Aims Children with early childhood psychopathology exhibit developmental abnormalities in various facets. Unfortunately, the standardised assessment of motor, linguistic and cognitive development has not yet been integrated in the diagnosic standarts of this age group. We are going to present the results of a german case-control study analysing the connection between early psychopathology, child development and possible familial factors. Methods Children from a german psychiatric utilisation population and from a healthy control group aged 0-60 months were recruited for the study. After verifying the inclusion and matching criteria, N=83 participants were included in the analyses. Results and Conclusions The findings indicate a statistically significant association between early psychopathology and child development. Children with early psychopathology demonstrated significantly lower scores on overall development than their healthy counterparts. Furthermore, the healthy controls demonstrated better outcomes in fine motor skills, language development and socio-emotional development than their counterparts with early psychopathology. These findings highlight the necessity of identifying psychological disorders and associated developmental deficits at an early stage in childhood. This can be achieved by incorporating developmental tests into the standard diagnostic procedures. This may facilitate the identification of developmental abnormalities at an early stage, thereby enabling the development of efficacious interdisciplinary therapeutic approaches. |