This book addresses the most significant and recent issues of infant and child psychiatry, examining topics from clinical care and research perspectives as well as from the perspectives of policies and programmes.

Infant mental health, an emerging discipline, stands at the threshold of momentous advances that illuminate the links between clinical observations and the developing brain of the infant. This book is an invaluable guide to the clinician seeking insight into the relationship of developmental, cognitive, and neuroscience research findings in infant mental health and illness. Significant recent studies reveal the extensive effects of experiences within families and communities on infant development. Varied research topics are reviewed, including fetal sensory responses, infant physiology, and parent-infant speech patterns. The problem of how to implement the cascading information about infants on a broad public-health scale, including topics from international health care strategies to the concept of 'educare', is discussed.
As the first book in The Mentor Series of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, it is written and edited by the foremost authorities in the field of child and adolescent mental health. It uses multiple levels of conceptualisation, from the infant's response to the feel and smell of a mother's skin, to how clinical knowledge informs broad policies affecting millions of children.
Presented with clarity in a thorough and well-organized fashion to professionals caring for children around the world, The Infant and Family in the Twenty-First Century refines the most significant current knowledge concerning infants and identifies major themes regarding the optimal development of infants and families.

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Giving babies a "voice" helps parents understand their baby's unique strengths and needs. This observational tool and handbook, complete with beautiful four-color photographs by a Pulitzer prize-winning photographer, gives professionals a systematic way to help parents respond with confidence to their baby's individual needs-and build positive parent-professional relationships in the process. Flexible, easy to integrate into everyday practice, and based on more than 25 years of research, this system includes A short, easy-to-use, interactive observational tool. With the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system, professionals will have a structured set of 18 observations (see sidebar) for infants from birth to approximately 3 months. Including parents as partners, professionals guide the observation, discuss the baby's abilities and behaviors with parents, encourage parent insights and questions, and suggest specific ways to support the child's development. (Appropriate use of the NBO tool in clinical practice requires training through the NBO training program.) A complete guide to the NBO system. Through realistic case studies, step-by-step how-to instructions, and color photos illustrating each NBO item, professionals will understand how to use the NBO effectively with a wide variety of families. Invaluable professional guidance. More than a tool, the handbook helps professionals improve their daily work with in-depth information on infant and parent development, cultural competence, premature and at-risk infants, family-centered care, and more. An essential resource from the co-author of the highly regarded Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) and his colleagues, this system is just what clinicians in hospital, clinic, or home settings need to help new mothers and fathers get to know their baby, increase their confidence and competence as parents, and support their child's growth and development.

Among the topics discussed in this collection of 11 articles (with an afterword by T. Berry Brazelton): cultural mediation between newborn behavior and later development; influence of infant irritability on the development of the mother-infant relationship in the first six months of life; facilitati