We review research evidence on the emergence and development of active “self-and-other” awareness in infancy, and examine the importance of its motives and emotions to mental health practice with children. This relates to how communication begins and develops in infancy, how it influences the individual subject's movement, perception, and learning, and how the infant's biologically grounded self-regulation of internal state and self-conscious purposefulness is sustained through active engagement with sympathetic others. Mutual self-other-consciousness is found to play the lead role in developing a child's cooperative intelligence for cultural learning and language. A variety of preconceptions have animated rival research traditions investigating infant communication and cognition. We distinguish the concept of “intersubjectivity”, and outline the history of its use in developmental research.The transforming body and brain of a human individual grows in active engagement with an environment of human factors—organic at first, then psychological or inter-mental. Adaptive, human-responsive processes are generated first by interneuronal activity within the developing brain as formation of the human embryo is regulated in a support-system of maternal tissues. Neural structures are further elaborated with the benefit of intra-uterine stimuli in the foetus, then supported in the rapidly growing forebrain and cerebellum of the young child by experience of the intuitive responses of parents and other human companions. We focus particularly on intrinsic patterns and processes in pre-natal and post-natal brain maturation that anticipate psychosocial support in infancy. The operation of an intrinsic motive formation (IMF) that developed in the core of the brain before birth is evident in the tightly integrated intermodal sensory-motor coordination of a newborn infant's orienting to stimuli and preferential learning of human signals, by the temporal coherence and intrinsic rhythms of infant behaviour, especially in communication, and neonates' extraordinary capacities for reactive and evocative imitation. The correct functioning of this integrated neural motivating system is found to be essential to the development of both the infant's purposeful consciousness and his or her ability to cooperate with other persons' actions and interests, and to learn from them.The relevance of infants' inherent intersubjectivity to major child mental health issues is highlighted by examining selected areas of clinical concern. We review recent findings on postnatal depression, prematurity, autism, ADHD, specific language impairments, and central auditory processing deficits, and comment on the efficacy of interventions that aim to support intrinsic motives for intersubjective communication when these are not developing normally.

Over the past two decades, mental retardation research converges on three general themes: co-occurring mental retardation and psychopathology; families of offspring with mental retardation; and the developmental approach regarding behavioral sequences and profiles. Intertwined with each theme is a mounting body of research on genetic mental retardation syndromes. We first review recent progress in each of the three domains—psychopathology, families, and development—based on studies of groups with heterogenous or nonspecific mental retardation. We then show how new findings from specific genetic syndromes take this knowledge even further, as well as aid in the search for genetic, physiological, and environmental mechanisms associated with certain behaviors. We end the review by briefly summarizing our reasons for promoting an etiological approach to future mental retardation research, as well as by discussing methodological and other challenges.

This paper reviews research in pediatric psychopharmacology over the past decade. The authors first discuss social, economic, and other influences on pediatric psychopharmacology research and prescribing patterns including changing models of childhood psychopathology, increased government funding, and changes in industry regulations. Definitions are offered for current research terminology including efficacy, effectiveness, and adverse events. Design trends and new approaches to outcome measurement are also presented. New data from the last 10 years of research is reviewed for each major class of psychotropic agents. Criteria for inclusion in the review are presented and include aspects of study design (placebo-controlled, large sample size), source of funding (government funded vs. industry), and vision (creative applications). Data for short-term efficacy, long-term efficacy, effectiveness, and safety and adverse events are discussed for each class of medication, although for many, there remains little empirical data. Findings for stimulants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, neuroleptics, alpha-adrenergic agonists, mood stabilizers, buproprion, secretin, naltrexone, immune therapies, and natural supplements are all presented. Finally, the authors offer some speculations regarding the future of pediatric psychopharmacology research.

The science of reading and developmental dyslexia has experienced spectacular advances during the last few years. Five aspects of this research are discussed in the article. (1) The holistic phenomenon of reading is complex. Many lower-level psychological processes (e.g., phonemic awareness, phonological decoding, ability to process stimuli rapidly and automatize this process, memory, ability to recognize words) contribute to a single act of reading. Conceptualizing the complex process of reading through its partly overlapping but partly independent components—which contribute to, but do not fully explain, the holistic process of reading—provides an excellent model for understanding complex hierarchies of higher mental functions. Those who master reading skills successfully and those who have difficulties doing so differ in a wide range of reading-related processes. The central deficit experienced by poor readers appears to be related to phonological processing (a complex hierarchy of functions related to processing phonemes), whereas characteristics of automatization processes seem to moderate the reading outcome for people whose phonological skills are weak. (2) There are new data addressing models of dyslexia in languages other than English. The most fascinating finding is that the model implicating phonological deficit as central to dyslexia, and the lack of ability to automatize as leading to troubled reading, appears to be universal, regardless of the specific language. However, there is an interaction effect between the characteristics of a particular language and the developmental model of dyslexia. In phonologically more difficult languages (e.g., English), the most pronounced weakness appears to occur in phonological processing, whereas in phonologically easier languages (e.g., German), the crucial role in the manifestation of dyslexia is played by the lack of the skills needed to achieve automatization. (3) There is abundant evidence that reading (i.e., any single act of reading as well as reading as a holistic process) is ‘‘cooked'' by the brain. Although no unified brain map of reading has been developed, some specific areas of the brain have been implicated in different reading-related cognitive processes by different laboratories and on different samples. (4) Indisputable evidence has been accumulated suggesting the involvement of the genome in developmental dyslexia. As of now, specific regions of the genome have been identified as being intimately involved with a number of different reading-related processes. Today the field of developmental dyslexia is the only area of genetic studies of human abilities and disabilities in which linkages to the genome have been robustly replicated in independent laboratories. (5) Finally, evidence suggests that developmental dyslexia might be only one of the manifestations of a deep, underlying, anatomical syndrome. The comorbidity of developmental dyslexia with both internalizing and externalizing behavioral disturbances, as well as with other learning disabilities, underscores the need for wide-ranging cognitive and behavioral approaches in the remediation programs offered to dyslexic children.

Social phobia is a common psychiatric problem in children and adolescents that has recently gained serious attention in clinical practice and research. This article describes the clinical presentation of social phobia and reviews several emergent areas of related research to social phobia in children and adolescents. We begin with a summary of research regarding the developmental pathways of childhood social anxiety into social phobia, highlighting normative developmental factors, behavioral inhibition, pathophysiology, genetics, and parenting/environmental factors. This is followed by a critical review of findings from studies providing evidence for and against the existence of subtypes of social phobia. Common comorbid disorders and sequelae of social phobia in children and adolescents are discussed, bringing to attention the critical need for effective treatments, the current status of which is reviewed in the final section. In sum, this review demonstrates that through research in multiple disciplines, scientists are now developing a better understanding of the risk and protective factors of social phobia in children and adolescents, ultimately leading to improvements in primary prevention and intervention efforts for children at serious risk for long-term problems with education, employment, social relationships, and independent adult functioning.

This report attempts to give nontechnical readers some insight into how a multilevel modelling framework can be used in longitudinal studies to assess contextual influences on child development when study samples arise from naturally formed groupings. We hope to achieve this objective by: (1) discussing the types of variables and research designs used for collecting developmental data; (2) presenting the methods and data requirements associated with two statistical approaches to developmental data—growth curve modelling and discrete-time survival analysis; (3) describing the multilevel extensions of these approaches, which can be used when the study of development includes intact clusters or naturally formed groupings; (4) demonstrating the flexibility of these two approaches for addressing a variety of research questions; and (5) placing the multilevel framework developed in this report in the context of some important issues, alternative approaches, and recent developments. We hope that readers new to these methods are able to visualize the possibility of using them to advance their work.