A Study on Child Psychopathology Based on Perspective of Perceptual Development

Introduction: The present study aimed to determine the sensory, cognitive, and emotional perception skills of children who have psychopathological disorders according to their diagnoses. Method: The sample group of the study, which was conducted with a causal-comparative model, was formed by purposeful sampling and snowball sampling methods. A total of 620 parents of children who were aged between 6 and 10 and who had children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, specific learning disorder, or intellectual disability, and parents with typically developing children who were between the ages of 6 and 10 were included in the study. The data were collected by using the Personal Information Form and Perceptual Skills Scale. Findings: As a result of the analyses, it was found that boys had more difficulties than girls in all perception areas and sensing fields interacted with each other. Also, children’s psychopathological diagnoses caused a significant difference in all sub-dimensions of the scale. Although children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder need more support in perceptual skills than other groups, children who are diagnosed with Specific Learning Disorders need less support. Discussion: The results of the present study showed that the Perceptual Skills Scale can perform a rough ranking between diagnostic groups. In conclusion, the Perceptual Skills Scale can be a functional tool to be used in medical diagnosis. For this reason, cut-off scores for diagnostic groups can be calculated by applying them to children at the medical diagnosis stage.