In this first compendium in the growing literature of behavioral teratology, readers will discover an easy-to-access, concise presentation that covers a huge range of subjects. The book synthesizes important findings that help explain why prenatal events may result in abnormal behavior and learning disabilities later in life. It goes further to examine the role of prenatal perturbations in conditions as varied as dyslexia, schizophrenia, fetal alcohol syndrome, and autism.

The book presents an empirical model of commonly occurring individual differences in children that is derived from a large-scale research effort assessing parental and teacher perceptions of children in middle childhood. It examines eight characteristic behavioral traits, most of which have been widely shown to be present in infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. The book demonstrates the importance of considering profiles of these relatively stable individual differences for the educational, social, and emotional life of the child. It describes characteristic behaviors of children within each profile - emphasizing the assets and liabilities of each - and how they are perceived by their parents, teachers, and peers. Chapters explore issues related to the most developmentally effective management of children exhibiting each profile type. In addition, the book addresses a critical need in child development, parenting, and teaching to understand the wide range of individual differences observed every day in school-aged children. Not only does this volume underscore that commonly occurring differences can be understood as being normal and do not suggest a pathology, it also discusses implications of the model in diagnosing pathology. The book describes what is known about the stability of temperament behaviors and profiles across the lifespan as well as the origins of these behaviors. Key topics addressed include: Nurturing development of well-adjusted children. Causes of individual differences in children's behavior. Temperamental tendencies and profiles of children. Diagnosing psychopathology in children. This book is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in developmental, clinical child and school psychology, social work, public health, pediatrics, family studies, educational psychology and counseling, and all other interrelated disciplines.

This book is the first to bring together researchers in individual differences in personality and temperament to explore whether there is any unity possible between the temperament researchers of infancy and childhood and the major researchers in adult personality. Prior to the workshop which resulted in this volume, the existing literature seemed to document a growing consensus on the part of the adult personality researchers that five major personality dimensions -- the "Big Five" -- might be sufficient to account for most of the important variances in adult individual differences in personality. In contrast to this accord, the literature on child and infant individual differences seemed to offer a wide variety of opinions regarding the basic dimensions of difference in personality or temperament. The editors believed that they could encourage researchers from both the adult and child areas to consider the importance of a lifespan conceptualization of individual differences by discussing their research in terms of a continuity approach.
Written by some of the most distinguished scholars from Great Britain, continental Western Europe, and Eastern Europe as well as the United States and Canada, the chapters present a cross-cultural view of both adult personality and temperament in infancy and childhood. By sharing their recent data, techniques, and theoretical speculations, the chapter authors communicate the research enthusiasm engendered by the growing consensus of the adult "Big Five" as well as the exciting prospects of an integrative program of research from infancy to adulthood that will clarify and consolidate what is now a disparate set of methods, theory, and findings across the lifespan. The editors suggest that this volume will have considerable heuristic value in stimulating researchers to conceptualize their work in developmental, lifespan approaches that will lead to a consolidation of individual differences research at every age.

This book is the first to bring together researchers in individual differences in personality and temperament to explore whether there is any unity possible between the temperament researchers of infancy and childhood and the major researchers in adult personality. Prior to the workshop which resulted in this volume, the existing literature seemed to document a growing consensus on the part of the adult personality researchers that five major personality dimensions -- the "Big Five" -- might be sufficient to account for most of the important variances in adult individual differences in personality. In contrast to this accord, the literature on child and infant individual differences seemed to offer a wide variety of opinions regarding the basic dimensions of difference in personality or temperament. The editors believed that they could encourage researchers from both the adult and child areas to consider the importance of a lifespan conceptualization of individual differences by discussing their research in terms of a continuity approach.
Written by some of the most distinguished scholars from Great Britain, continental Western Europe, and Eastern Europe as well as the United States and Canada, the chapters present a cross-cultural view of both adult personality and temperament in infancy and childhood. By sharing their recent data, techniques, and theoretical speculations, the chapter authors communicate the research enthusiasm engendered by the growing consensus of the adult "Big Five" as well as the exciting prospects of an integrative program of research from infancy to adulthood that will clarify and consolidate what is now a disparate set of methods, theory, and findings across the lifespan. The editors suggest that this volume will have considerable heuristic value in stimulating researchers to conceptualize their work in developmental, lifespan approaches that will lead to a consolidation of individual differences research at every age.

The book presents an empirical model of commonly occurring individual differences in children that is derived from a large-scale research effort assessing parental and teacher perceptions of children in middle childhood. It examines eight characteristic behavioral traits, most of which have been widely shown to be present in infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children. The book demonstrates the importance of considering profiles of these relatively stable individual differences for the educational, social, and emotional life of the child. It describes characteristic behaviors of children within each profile - emphasizing the assets and liabilities of each - and how they are perceived by their parents, teachers, and peers. Chapters explore issues related to the most developmentally effective management of children exhibiting each profile type. In addition, the book addresses a critical need in child development, parenting, and teaching to understand the wide range of individual differences observed every day in school-aged children. Not only does this volume underscore that commonly occurring differences can be understood as being normal and do not suggest a pathology, it also discusses implications of the model in diagnosing pathology. The book describes what is known about the stability of temperament behaviors and profiles across the lifespan as well as the origins of these behaviors. Key topics addressed include: Nurturing development of well-adjusted children. Causes of individual differences in children's behavior. Temperamental tendencies and profiles of children. Diagnosing psychopathology in children. This book is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in developmental, clinical child and school psychology, social work, public health, pediatrics, family studies, educational psychology and counseling, and all other interrelated disciplines.

Children are being diagnosed with psychopathologies at alarming rates. Not surprisingly, their behavioral and educational outcomes are increasingly compromised. The financial costs of treating childhood disabilities are spiraling out of control, and the emotional and social toll on students, families, schools, the penal system, and society as a whole is staggering.

With proper care during pregnancy, medical professionals can now help expectant mothers prevent many physical birth defects. But prevention and intervention techniques remain elusive for abnormal fetal development that manifests later in life as behavioral problems. Researchers in the field of behavioral teratology continue to search for answers prevention and intervention techniques that will lead to improved behavioral and education outcomes for children.

In this first compendium in the growing literature of behavioral teratology, readers will discover an easy-to-access, concise presentation that: Synthesizes important findings that help explain why prenatal events may result in abnormal behavior and learning disabilities later in life; Examines the role of prenatal perturbations, along with genetics and the postnatal roles of caretakers and the social environment, in light of how each may individually or together contribute to conditions as varied as dyslexia, schizophrenia, fetal alcohol syndrome, and autism; Ensures that effective prevention and intervention can occur during the prenatal phases of development; Addresses the research needs in behavioral teratology that are likely to lead to discoveries that may ensure the birth of healthier babies who develop normally across the lifespan; Provides a brief medical glossary that details terminology specifically related to fetal development and birth.

With its multidisciplinary approach, this volume is a must-have resource for clinical child and school psychologists; educational professionals; medical practitioners; social workers and counselors as well as researchers and graduate students in these areas. In addition, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and other medical professionals including such disciplines as epidemiology, reproductive biology, psychiatry, pediatrics, obstetrics, neonatology, among others will find this book highly useful."

Das Buch stellt ein empirisches Modell der haufig vorkommenden individuellen Unterschiede bei Kindern vor, das aus einer gross angelegten Forschungsarbeit abgeleitet wurde, bei der die Wahrnehmungen von Eltern und Lehrern von Kindern in der mittleren Kindheit untersucht wurden. Es werden acht charakteristische Verhaltensmerkmale untersucht, von denen die meisten nachweislich bei Sauglingen, Kleinkindern und Kindern im Vorschulalter vorhanden sind. Das Buch zeigt, wie wichtig die Berucksichtigung von Profilen dieser relativ stabilen individuellen Unterschiede fur das padagogische, soziale und emotionale Leben des Kindes ist. Es beschreibt charakteristische Verhaltensweisen von Kindern innerhalb jedes Profils - wobei die Vorzuge und Nachteile jedes Profils hervorgehoben werden - und wie sie von ihren Eltern, Lehrern und Gleichaltrigen wahrgenommen werden. In den Kapiteln werden Fragen im Zusammenhang mit dem entwicklungsmassig effektivsten Umgang mit Kindern, die die einzelnen Profiltypen aufweisen, untersucht. Daruber hinaus befasst sich das Buch mit dem kritischen Bedurfnis in der kindlichen Entwicklung, der Elternschaft und dem Unterricht, die grosse Bandbreite individueller Unterschiede zu verstehen, die taglich bei Kindern im Schulalter beobachtet werden. Dieser Band unterstreicht nicht nur, dass haufig auftretende Unterschiede als normal angesehenwerden koennen und nicht auf eine Pathologie hindeuten, sondern eroertert auch die Auswirkungen des Modells auf die Diagnose von Pathologien. Das Buch beschreibt, was uber die Stabilitat von Verhaltensweisen und Profilen des Temperaments uber die gesamte Lebensspanne hinweg bekannt ist, sowie die Ursprunge dieser Verhaltensweisen. Zu den wichtigsten Themen gehoeren: Foerderung der Entwicklung von Kindern, die sich gut entwickeln. Ursachen fur individuelle Unterschiede im Verhalten von Kindern. Temperamentvolle Tendenzen und Profile von Kindern. Diagnose von Psychopathologie bei Kindern. Dieses Buch ist ein unverzichtbares Hilfsmittel fur Forscher, Professoren und Studenten sowie fur Kliniker und verwandte Berufsgruppen in den Bereichen Entwicklungs-, klinische Kinder- und Schulpsychologie, Sozialarbeit, oeffentliches Gesundheitswesen, Padiatrie, Familienstudien, padagogische Psychologie und Beratung sowie allen anderen verwandten Disziplinen.