The aims of the ARICD, which is a registered charity and recognised as a learned society, are:
- To promote and maintain standards of work in the diagnosing and testing of babies and young children, particularly using the Griffiths scales;
- To foster studies and research designed to increase knowledge and understanding of mental development problems in very young children both typical and atypical;
- In connection with the above, to organise meetings for the exchange of ideas and the development of activities designed to help typical and atypical children of all groups worldwide.
Additional funds are needed to sustain the charity’s aims. In particular this is to assist the cause of atypical children in impoverished parts of the world, both through more widespread training of children’s doctors there and in providing a clear assessment of the needs of atypical children and how to assist their progress towards a more fulfilled life.