Overview
This half-day, clinically practical training helps master’s-level clinicians and early-career psychologists build confidence using the DSM-5-TR with children and adolescents. You’ll learn a step-by-step diagnostic workflow that moves from referral question to defensible diagnostic hypotheses, differential diagnosis, and documentation-ready rationales—without getting lost in the manual or over-pathologizing developmentally typical behaviour. We focus on common youth “look-alike” presentations (e.g., ADHD vs anxiety vs trauma; irritability across disorders; autism vs social anxiety; behaviour concerns and executive functioning mismatches; somatic symptoms and school refusal). You’ll leave with decision tools, templates, and a process you can use immediately in intake, consultation, formal assessment, and charting.
Who Is This For :
Master’s-level practicum/internship students (psychology, school psychology, counseling, social work)
Provisional/early-career psychologists and therapists
Clinicians new to child/adolescent diagnostic work or wanting a practical refresher
Learning Objectives:
- Identify DSM-5-TR features most relevant to youth clinical practice (criteria sets, notes, specifiers, severity indicators).
- Apply a structured diagnostic workflow to youth presentations using symptom pattern, duration, impairment, and exclusions.
- Generate differential diagnoses for common child/adolescent “look-alike” presentations and identify key discriminating questions.
- Select and justify appropriate use of specifiers, severity, and course features to improve clinical communication and treatment planning.
- Produce a concise, documentation-ready diagnostic rationale paragraph that reflects clinical reasoning and acknowledges uncertainty appropriately.
