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School refusal in pervasive developmental disorders

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Abstract

Of 135 autistic and/or mentally retarded youngsters, 30 with pervasive developmental disorders and 2 with nonautistic mental retardation showed school refusal according to its modified definition. School refusal was significantly more frequent in other PDDs than in nonautistic mental retardation. The intellectual level was significantly higher in PDD children with school refusal than those without it. A certain level of mental development and obsessive tendency appear necessary for PDD children to develop school refusal. In order to treat school refusal in PDD, it is important to make school a pleasant place to go and to encourage the child to attend.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Developmental Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, NCNP, Japan, 1-7-3 Konodai, Ichikawa, 272, Chiba, Japan

    Hiroshi Kurita

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  1. Hiroshi Kurita
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This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (No. 63480263) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan. The author thanks Hide Adachi and Hiroko Taniguchi in the Child Guidance Center affiliated with the National Welfare Foundation for Disabled Children in Tokyo for their assistance in data collection.

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Kurita, H. School refusal in pervasive developmental disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 21, 1–15 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02206993

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