Neurodevelopment disorders
Intellectual Disability, Down Syndrome, Foetal Alcohol Syndrome
1. Drawing on research evidence discuss the challenges of diagnosing Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.
2. Define intellectual disability and drawing on research evidence explain how and why raising a child with an intellectual disability may affect parent’s psychological well-being.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
3. Discuss the research evidence that underpin the revisions made to the diagnostic criteria of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-V.
4. It is widely acknowledged that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder cannot be explained by a single cognitive deficit model, such as Barkley’s impaired inhibition model. Evaluate the evidence which shows that there are multiple causal pathways to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
5. Discuss the research evidence that underpin the revisions made to the diagnostic criteria of autism in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ()-V.
6. There are three main cognitive explanations of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These are impaired ‘theory of mind’, ‘central coherence’, and ‘executive function’ skills. Critically evaluate how these three domains of cognitive skills might be related to each other and contribute to the observed cognitive, communicative and behavioural difficulties in ASD.
7. Define Autism Spectrum Disorder and drawing on research evidence explain how and why raising a child with autism may affect parent’s psychological well-being.
Conduct Disorders & Prevention
8. Explain how conduct disorders are diagnosed and discuss why a multimodal approach is needed to prevent them escalating to more serious mental health problems later in life.
Your answer should draw on research evidence.
9. Why is it important to specify conduct disorders in terms of ‘childhood onset type, adolescent onset type, unspecified onset and with limited prosocial emotions’? Discuss the importance of specifying conduct disorders under these four main categories in terms of understanding the causal factors underlying conduct disorders and prognosis (long-term outcomes).
: Developmental Language Disorders and Reading Disorders
10. Drawing on research evidence explain whether the specific reading comprehension difficulty and developmental language disorders are one and the same disorder.
11. What is the evidence that developmental language disorders can contribute to serious social-emotional and behavioural problems? Discuss.
12. For a long time, dyslexia has been explained as a disorder of phonological processing skills. What is the evidence for and against the phonological deficit hypothesis of dyslexia?
13. Drawing on research evidence compare dyslexia with specific reading comprehension disorder in terms of their clinical profile and causal explanations.
: Anxiety disorders
14. Drawing on research evidence discuss the diagnostic profile, developmental course and etiology of social anxiety disorder.
15. What are the main diagnostic features of generalized anxiety disorder and what are the most : Maltreatment, Intervention and prevention
16. Explain the link between family conflict and child maltreatment and discuss the research evidence that marital conflict at home may contribute to child maltreatment.
17. Explain the challenges of assessing the effectiveness of prevention programmes. Illustrate your answer with examples based on both the Positive Parenting Programme (Triple P) and Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) programmes.
18. Drawing on research evidence discuss the links between poverty and child mental wellbeing.
