Separation anxiety disorder (SAD) is a commonlyoccurring anxiety disorder in children. Indeed, SAD is the onlyanxiety disorder particular to disorders of childhood in the DSMIV.SAD creates considerable distress in parents and children.Moreover, left untreated SAD contributes to social and academicimpairment. Accordingly, proper assessment and treatmentmethods are essential. This paper proposes several means foridentifying and treating children with SAD. Assessment methodsdesigned to detect SAD in youth are presented and reviewed.Special emphasis is placed on selecting the most developmentallysensitive methods. Further, multicultural issues in the assessmentof SAD are addressed. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)models for the treatment of SAD are presented. Traditional andinnovative methods for taking care of young patients and theirfamilies are described. Several case examples amplify the salientpoints
