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Abstract Background Young children with emerging mental health problems and neurodevelopmental differences often do not receive the support they need early in life, and if they do receive support, it may not be appropriately targeted towards their individual needs. The Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU) was established to meet this need, offering an innovative method for evaluating young children through developmental profiling guided by the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). Methods Children (4–7 years) identified as experiencing social, emotional, and/or cognitive difficulties by education practitioners were referred to the NDAU to complete a comprehensive battery of assessments. We present an overview of the first cohort of children ( N = 486) who were referred between September 2017 and January 2023. We first provide an overview of children's performance on constructs within the Cognitive Systems and Systems for Social Processes domains of the RDoC. As an exploratory analysis, we used latent profile analysis to identify subgroups of children with similar patterns of performance on assessments within these domains. Results Children demonstrated most difficulties with recognition of negative emotions (81.6% below average in at least one negative emotion), understanding mental states (51.4% below average), and sustained attention (47.6% below average). Next, we identified three distinct subgroups of children, each defined by unique patterns of performance across Cognitive Systems and Social Processing domains. Conclusion These findings highlight the NDAU as a promising model for dimensional assessment and underscore the importance of investigating variability and heterogeneity in the neuropsychological profiles of young children with emerging difficulties.
Paine et al. (Wed,) studied this question.