[Integrated approach to management of partial retardation in 5-8-year-old children]

The assessment of developmental retardation, of learning disabilities and their remediation are essential issues of psychosocial care. Depending on an Institution's destination, however, interpretation of such problems as well as their therapy may differ considerably. This is due to the diverse standards and specializations of the experts' professional training and experience, their individual meanings and institutional perspectives. In the first part a review of articles published in the last twenty years sums up the diagnostical and therapeutical concepts in the care for children with developmental retardation. The concepts are evaluated in terms of their practical relevance. In the second part the integrative concept of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Göttingen University is presented. A report of an evaluation study is added. The complexity of the subject is enhanced and the need not to look separately at the individual deficits but to consider the total intra- and interindividual relations.