Children with language processing deficits have various learning impairments and poor scholastic performance. In 3-10% of all children a specific language processing deficit can be identified by the Sound Connecting Sub-Test of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic-Abilities (SC-ITPA). These children among which we drew our index group (AS-Group) suffer from the disability to recognize isolated sounds as parts of words. Following linguistic terminology this is known as an auditory sequential sound processing deficit (ASSPD) Eighteen children (AS-Group) and 21 controls (C-Group) were subjected to mapped P300 evoked potential analyses of cortical response to acoustic stimulation in the oddball paradigm. The data presented here show that there exists significant relation between the P300 amplitude reduction and ASSPD. The P300 amplitude decrease measured in the AS-Group is due to a reduced information transmission in accordance with Johnson's Triarchic Model of the P300 Amplitude. The cerebral structures involved in poor language processing are localized at the left temporo-parietal cortex. This supports the hypothesis that the underlying neuronal defect of ASSPD is localized in the language center and not in the auditory pathway. The P300 amplitude may serve as electrophysiological tool to identify ASSPD and to quantify the degree of improvement in the course of specific therapy.

A lack of perseverance, poor attention, and poorly modulated behaviour are important criteria of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Instructions often have to be repeated, sometimes even by different family members before a child with ADHD attends and complies. We hypothesised that a child with ADHD might cause less disagreement in families with almost no conflicts. Responses to the Mannheim Parents Interview and teacher's form of the Conners scale completed by families of 15 boys (ages 6 to 12 years), diagnosed with ADHD were compared with those of a matched, healthy control group of 15 boys. Parents completed a form assessing the family's cooperation and child-rearing practices. Having few family conflicts, i.e., almost no Verbal Disagreement may reduce Physical Punishment and Anger and Disregard and augment the Openness to another's needs and, for that reason, have protective effects on children's behaviour modulation.

Physicians often deceive themselves in thinking that they can always find definite reasons for illnesses, to help them to apply "therapia magna sterilisans". The treatment of schizophrenia, in particular, does not support this illusion. It must be based on an integral understanding of internal and external reality, which has to be delivered by a multi-professional team. Cooperation between different therapeutic, secondary preventive and rehabilitative aspects requires good case management. Generally the reality can only approximate the illusion of a single cause of illness.

Standardized assessment of a family's characteristics (conflict management, cohesion, etc.) is not used routinely, although these variables may play an important role in the course of psychological disorders in children. The present study investigated differences within the features of families of children with hyperkinetic and emotional disorders. Families of 20 boys diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperkinetic Disorder and 20 boys with Emotional Disorder (ages 6-12 years) by giving the Mannheim Parents Interview and the teacher's form of the Conners scale were included for evaluation and compared with a matched, healthy control group of 20 boys. Parents were asked to complete a form assessing the family's characteristics ("Familienklima-Testsystem"), including Cohesion, Expressiveness, Conflict Tendency, Individual Independence, Achievement Orientation, Intellectual-Cultural Orientation, Active-Recreational Orientation, Moral-Religious Emphasis, and Organization. Comparison of groups was made by the Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test. There are significantly more conflicts in families whose children belong to the two disorder groups. Compared with a matched healthy control group, there is low Expressiveness, Independence, and Cultural and Active-Recreational Orientation in the Emotional Disorder group and a significant lack of Organization and Cohesion in the Attention Deficit Hyperkinetic Disorder group. Altogether there seems to be a significant association of Attention Deficit Hyperkinetic Disorder symptoms with the family's Cohesion and Organization. One implication is that therapists focus their efforts not only on the children with disorders but also on their families.

We report on the case of a 4-year old child suffering for the past six months from a lingering psychotic development. Several months of outpatient observation did not permit a clear differential diagnosis of either childhood autism or an early psychosis. During a one-week inpatient stay at our hospital recurring productive-psychotic episodes were observed that finally led to the exclusion of the diagnosis of "childhood autism" (ICD-10 F 84.0 (Dilling et al., 1993)) and to the diagnosis of "other disintegrative childhood disorder" (ICD-10: F 84.3 (Dilling et al., 1993)).

A lack of perseverance, poor attention, and poorly modulated behaviour are important criteria of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Instructions often must be repeated, sometimes even by different family members, before a child with ADHD attends and complies The hyperkinetic child might cause less disruption in families with high coherence Families of 15 boys (aged 6 to 12 years) diagnosed with ADHD using the Mannheim Parent's Interview and the teacher's form of the Conners scale were compared with a matched healthy control group of 15 boys. Parents completed a form assessing the family's cooperation and child-rearing practices. Intrafamilial coherence seems to have little positive association with the family's characteristics, especially for boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Low coherence among family members may reduce ADHD symptoms and may have protective effects on children with ADHD.

Zusammenfassung: Es wird über einen 4-jährigen Patienten berichtet, bei welchem seit sechs Monaten eine schleichende psychotische Entwicklung festzustellen war. Eine mehrmonatige ambulante Verlaufsbeobachtung ließ keine eindeutige differentialdiagnostische Abgrenzung eines frühkindlichen Autismus zu einer infantilen Psychose zu. Während eines einwöchigen stationären Aufenthaltes an unserer Klinik konnten rezidivierende produktiv-psychotische Episoden beobachtet werden, was schließlich zum Ausschluss der Diagnose «frühkindlicher Autismus» (ICD-10 F84.0 (Dilling et al., 1993)) und stattdessen zur Diagnose «sonstige desintegrative Störung des Kindesalters» (ICD-10: F84.3 (Dilling et al., 1993)) führte.