Infant and Toddler Mental Health

This work deals with the most common and important problems in infant psychopathology (problems with trauma, sleep, feeding, excessive crying, attachment disruptions and so on) and how to evaluate them and treat them in infancy. It emphasizes practical and "real world" problems. Countless studies have demonstrated the power of early intervention to permanently alter the course of a child's life. Yet—heightened by the past decade's research breakthroughs in genetics—the nature versus nurture controversy rages on. This volume dispels some of the persistent myths surrounding this controversy. Unlike largely theoretical texts that describe infant behavioral and emotional difficulties and other psychosocial challenges affecting young children, this eminently practical guide illustrates what to do in numerous clinical situations. Written by clinicians who work with infants and children and their families every day, this reality-based approach addresses the most common and important problems in infant psychopathology (e.g., trauma, sleep, feeding, excessive crying, attachment disruptions), covering models of intervention from pregnancy through infancy, attachment issues, and transgenerational themes. Here, you'll find topics rarely addressed elsewhere: the theoretical and clinical implications of trauma during early childhood and its effects on emotional regulation, cognition, and attachment; the effects of day care and changes in caregivers on infants; and unique commentaries on two case examples by a diverse international panel of clinicians and researchers, illustrating the differences of opinion, approaches, and perspectives that together generate more effective assessment and treatment. This thought-provoking clinical reference is a "must read" for developmental, child, and adolescent psychiatry educators and practitioners—and nurses, pediatricians, occupational therapists, and clinical social workers—as they help the youngest members of our community through theoretical understanding and practical intervention. In their every-day clinical work, child mental health clinicians are confronted with infants (children under three years of age) that exhibit emotional and behavioural difficulties. In most American states there is a mandate to identify and intervene when infants have developmental or risk factors. In some states, there is movement toward mandatory mental health evaluation of infants who enter foster care (such as Florida). Child clinicians in general have very little opportunity to be exposed to training in infant mental health, and particularly on the difficult question of "what to do" - how to intervene clinically. What are appropriate methods for different disorders, infants and families? This work deals with the most common and important problems in infant psychopathology (problems with trauma, sleep, feeding, excessive crying, attachment disruptions and so on) and how to evaluate them and treat them in infancy. It has an emphasis on the practical and "real world" problems, including those of multi-problem families under a great deal of stress. The models of intervention described here start from pregnancy through infancy; attachment issues and transgenerational themes are also covered. Experts from several countries share their clinical work and discuss clinical material presented to them.