The Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC:0-5)
DC:0-5 is a developmentally based assessment designed to help professionals diagnose mental health and developmental disorders in infants and toddlers from birth to five years of age. The process includes a mental health professional evaluating developmental challenges in young children while considering how relationships and environmental factors contribute to the child’s social and emotional well-being and developmental progress.
The DC:0-5 assessment process strives to prevent, diagnose, and treat mental health problems in the earliest years of children by identifying and describing disorders by a mental health professional that is not addressed in other classification systems and pointing the way to effective intervention approaches.