Trauma, Autism, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Integrating Research, Practice, and Policy

This book examines the diagnostic overlap and frequent confusion between the newly named DSM-5 diagnostic categories of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), which include autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and trauma and stressor related disorders (TSRDs). These conditions are similar in that a) children with developmental disorders are particularly vulnerable to traumatic events and b) all have pervasive effects on the brain and development. Chapters provide a wealth of effective clinical, family, and school-based interventions, developed from established studies and important new findings. In addition, chapters use illustrative case studies to survey assessment challenges in today’s healthcare climate and consider alternative routes for improving correct diagnoses, identifying appropriate interventions, and referring proper targeted, evidence-based treatment and services. The book concludes with the editors’ recommendations for needs-based service access, including a more widespread use and acceptance of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework.Topics featured in this book include: The neurobiological contributors to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) and its diagnosis in children with a history of trauma. Interventions for trauma and stressor-related disorders in preschool-aged children. Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis and care in a cultural context. Special population consideration in ASD identification and treatment. Challenges associated with the transition to adulthood. Trauma and neurodevelopmental disorders from a public health perspective. Trauma, Autism, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians and related professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, public health, social work, pediatrics, and special education.

About the Author

Jason M. Fogler, M.A., Ph.D. , is a Staff Psychologist and the Co-Director of ADHD Services at Boston Children's Hospital's Division of Developmental Medicine. At Boston Children's, he is the Attending Psychologist on a multidisciplinary team devoted to the complex developmental and mental health issues of children in foster care and various phases of adoption, both domestically and internationally. After graduating from Boston University's Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, he completed clinical training and a postdoctoral clinical research fellowship in a joint appointment at the VA Boston Healthcare System's National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Boston Medical Center's Center for Medical and Refugee Trauma. During this period, he served as training faculty for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network's Learning Collaborative. Dr. Fogler is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, has taught nationally and internationallyon the topics of trauma-focused treatment and assessment, and published articles on comprehensive treatment for traumatized children and clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse.  He is one of the editors of Trauma Therapy in Context: The Science & Craft of Evidence Based Practice (APA Publications: 2012).

Randall Phelps, M.D., Ph.D. , is a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Child Development and Rehabilitation Center, Institute on Development and Disability, Oregon Health and Science University.  He completed M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Washington, Residency in Pediatrics at The University of Michigan, and Fellowship in Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics at University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Phelps attends on interdisciplinary teams to provide diagnostic assessments and care to children with developmental disabilities and/or behavioral conditions throughout the state of Oregon and surrounding states. Dr. Phelps created an outreach clinic to provide developmental-behavioral pediatric consultation to the Relief Nursery, a therapeutic preschool program for children at high risk of trauma. Dr. Phelps has been a co-Investigator, with the Relief Nursery, on several demonstration grants to improve care coordination for children utilizing multiple community resources. Dr. Phelps has given lectures and workshops regionally, nationally, and internationally, on differential diagnosis of autism, including the diagnostic confusion between autism and reactive attachment and related disorders.