Comparison of DSM-IV/ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria - Childhood Disorders: Communication Disorders

Comparison of DSM-IV/ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria

Regarding expressive language disorder, the ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria for Research suggest specific cutoffs for the expressive language scores: 2 standard deviations below the expected level and 1 standard deviation below nonverbal IQ. Furthermore, in con-trast to DSM-IV-TR, the diagnosis cannot be made if there are any neurological, sensory, or physical impairments that directly affect the use of spoken language or if there is mental retardation.

For DSM-IV-TR mixed receptive expressive language dis-order, the corresponding ICD-10 disorder is “receptive language disorder”. In contrast to DSM-IV which specifies both expressive and receptive language difficulties because these generally occur together, the ICD-10 definition only mentions deviations in lan-guage comprehension. As with expressive language disorder, the ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria for Research suggest a cutoff of recep-tive language scores of 2 standard deviations below the expected level and 1 standard deviation below nonverbal IQ. Furthermore, in contrast to DSM-IV-TR, the diagnosis cannot be made if there are any neurological, sensory, or physical impairments that di-rectly affect receptive language or if there is mental retardation.

As compared with DSM-IV-TR phonological disorder, in which no mention is made in place of the ICD-10 Diagnostic Cri-teria for Research suggest that articulation skills, as assessed on standardized tests, be 2 standard deviations below the expected level and 1 standard deviation below nonverbal IQ. Furthermore, in contrast to DSM-IV-TR, the diagnosis cannot be made if there are any neurological, sensory, or physical impairments that di-rectly affect receptive language or if there is mental retardation.

Regarding stuttering, in contrast to DSM-IV-TR which es-tablishes clinical significance based on interference with academic or occupational achievement or with social communication, the ICD-10 Diagnostic Criteria for Research establish clinical signifi-cance by requiring a minimum duration of at least 3 months.