This newsletter is designed to highlight topics of interest to you, our Customers. In each issue, we will focus on a topic relevant to psychology and assessment, and we’ll provide some useful links for those who want more in-depth information. We also want to be sure that you have the most up-to-date information about PAR’s assessment instruments, including what’s new—or recently revised—in our catalog. In this first issue, we consider the topic of Childhood Depression.
In light of the paradigm shift in recent years toward a Response to Intervention (RTI) approach to practice, school psychologists need to be even more aware of the factors that may be influencing a child’s or an adolescent’s difficulties in school, whether those problems manifest themselves in the academic or the social arena. One of the factors to consider is Depression. Depression is more than just an occasional sad mood; it can be a debilitating condition that affects a child’s or an adolescent’s ability to think, feel, and behave normally. Depression can lead to school failure, alcohol and drug use, and even suicide. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, about five percent of children and adolescents in the general population suffer from Depression (www.aacap.org).
A recent article in the APA’s Psychiatric News outlines some of the differences between pediatric and adult depression, asserting that depression in children frequently goes undiagnosed (http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/). Children and adolescents who cause trouble at home or school may not always seem sad, and it can be hard for parents and teachers to recognize that the child’s behavior could be a symptom of Depression.
In the next few years, screening for Depression may become more routine in the school setting. To learn more or to share information with the parents in your professional practice, check out the resources below.
The PAR Assessment Toolkit™ is a convenient application for your iPhone® or other mobile device that provides shortcuts to the tools you use every day, including a Normative Curve, a Conversion Chart, an Age Calculator, a Stopwatch, and a Compliancy Calculator. Now Add-On Modules are also available for in-app purchase that provide normative table lookups for 7 assessments. In response to Customer demand, a web version of this toolkit is now available: visit http://toolkit.parinc.com to access the toolkit today.