The Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders has just released its first diagnostic guide, the Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood (ICDL-DMIC). The guide includes the first-ever diagnostic codes for Sensory Processing Disorders.
The ICDL-DMIC is "the first comprehensive, developmentally based classification system for neurodevelopmental, (including autistic spectrum) mental health, language, and learning disorders. The ICDL-DMIC opens a new era in our approach to social, emotional, language, regulatory-sensory processing and learning challenges," according to the ICDL website.
ICDL was founded by Dr. Stanley Greenspan, MD, who also was a founder of the Zero to Three organization in 1977. For the ICDL-DMIC, Greenspan worked with occupational therapists Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR; Marie Anzalone, ScD, OTR; Sharon A. Cermak, EdD, OTR/L; Shelly J. Lane, PhD, OTR; and Beth Osten, MS, OTR/L, to develop the classification scheme for sensory processing disorders.
"We worked together for two years with Dr. Greenspan to come up with this diagnostic classification scheme, which includes definitions, an appendix which is a method of assessing, and a set of diagnostic codes," said Dr. Miller, founder and director of the KID Foundation.
Five years ago, the KID Foundation's board of directors set as an agenda the acknowledgement of sensory processing disorders in both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9). As stepping stones to that effort, the foundation also sought inclusion in the ICDL-DMIC and in Zero to Three's Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC:0-3).
Therapists treating children with sensory processing disorders can now use a standard code along with one of the new ICDL codes.
For more information, visit ICDL online at www.icdl.com and the KID Foundation at www.kidfoundation.com.
New ICDL-DMIC Diagnostic Codes
200. Regulatory-Sensory Processing Disorder
Sensory Modulation Challenges (Type I)
201. Over-Responsive, Fearful, Anxious Pattern
202. Over-Responsive, Negative, and Stubborn Pattern
203. Under-Responsive, Self-Absorbed Pattern
203.1 Self-Absorbed and Difficult to Engage Type
203.2 Self-Absorbed and Creative Type
204. Active, Sensory Seeking Pattern
Sensory Discrimination Challenges (Type II) and Sensory-Based Motor Challenges (Type III)
205. Inattentive, Disorganized Pattern
205.1 With Sensory Discrimination Challenges
205.2 With Postural Control Challenges
205.3 With Dyspraxia
205.4 With Combinations of 205.1-205.3
206. Compromised School and/or Academic Performance Pattern
206.1 With Sensory Discrimination Challenges
206.2 With Postural Control Challenges
206.3 With Dyspraxia
206.4 With Combinations of 206.1-206.3
Contributing Sensory Discrimination and Sensory-Based Motor Challenges
207. Mixed Regulatory-Sensory Processing Patterns
207.1 Attentional Problems
207.2 Disruptive Behavioral Problems
207.3 Sleep Problems
207.4 Eating Problems
207.5 Elimination Problems
207.6 Elective Mutism
207.7 Mood Dysregulation, including Bipolar Patterns
207.8 Other Emotional and Behavioral Problems Related to Mixed
Regulatory-Sensory Processing Difficulties
207.9 Mixed Regulatory-Sensory Processing Difficulties where Behavioral or Emotional Problems Are Not Yet in Evidence