Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, and Relationship-Based Therapies: A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplnary Practice

by Connie Lillas, Janiece Turnbull

Overview

A groundbreaking neuroscientific understanding of infant and child development, including a CD-ROM with supplementary worksheets, figures and tables.

When early interventions with children fail, clinicians wonder: How could things have been different? The answers seem obvious at first, but a little reflection begins to unveil just how complicated this question really is. Who should have been included in the treatment? With what professionals and using what approaches? When should intervention have occurred? Each question involves a spectrum of both personal and societal issues, which is perhaps why problems that are so widely acknowledged remain so widely ignored. Often, a family is not aware that their story could have had a different ending.

So, in response to the critical need for a more cohesive system of care for our youngest patients, this book presents a conceptual framework for interdisciplinary collaboration. Examining the issues of infant mental health and early intervention from a brain-based perspective—one that cuts across all domains—addresses the need for individual practitioners to incorporate the whole picture in relation to their part in assessing and intervening with each individual child and parent, and provides a global framework for team collaboration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393704259
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/23/2009
Series:	Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	602
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Connie Lillas, PhD, is director of the Interdisciplinary Training Institute and lives in the Los Angeles area.

Janiece Turnbull, PhD, is director of Neurobehavior Services, Inc. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Editorial Reviews

"[A] very readable and informative book. I state with pride and enthusiasm that the two authors have met the challenge of scientist-practitioner with distinction."

Paul Satz

"This clearly written and well organized book provides a road map for the field....Highly recommended."

Antonio Damasio

"This book is an amazing synthesis, in which development, clinical experience, and neuroscience inform each other in a clear and applied way. As anyone who has worked with challenged infants, young children, and their families knows, understanding the complexity and interaction of all the components involved is a daunting responsibility. The authors’ neurorelational framework reconciles theory, clinical observation, and research in a manner which inspires the reader’s thought and insight. It is a guide to academic and clinical interdisciplinary practice which should become the standard for all!"

Serena Wieder

"[G]old mine of information….A real gift contained in this book is the supplementary CD that provides further background information, concise summaries of the concepts under consideration, and blank ready-to-print worksheets for immediate use….this book is vital background knowledge for anyone working with at-risk or atypically developing young children and their families."

PsycCritiques

"This is a timely book that offers us all a chance to do better work for children and families."

T. Berry Brazelton

"[H]ighly relevant to all disciplines focused on early development. This integration of theories about brain function within context, and particularly within relationships, is vitally important for understanding development, behavior, assessment, and intervention for all professionals in early learning, early intervention, parenting, and mental health....No one reading this will ever think or act without the perspective of brain, behavior, context, and relationships as the integrating framework for assessment and treatment of developmental concerns."

Kathryn E. Barnard