Abstract
Recently there have been reports of an increase in the prevalence of developmental disorders. Developmental disorders include psychological and physical disorders, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention-defect/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), and learning disorders (LD), as a consequence of impairment of the normal development of motor or cognitive skills. Although the increase in developmental disorders may arguably be due to a change in the diagnostic criteria, improved screening and early detection, especially of ASD, remains a concern for health and educational professionals who provide intervention programs for these increasing numbers. The diagnosis of developmental disorder is made by recognizing patterns of behavior that are present early in life. All systems for diagnosis that have been suggested, including the international classification of diseases (ICD) and diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM), agree that childhood ASD, for example, is a pervasive developmental disorder that is characterized by abnormal functioning in 3 main areas of development before the age of 3 years: (1) reciprocal social interaction, (2) communication, and (3) stereotypical repetitive behavior. In this paper, I propose the importance of appropriate behavior intervention programs for preschool children with developmental disorders to support their cognitive, adaptive behavior, and language development.
