This book provides a nontechnical account of human development that is particularly relevant to an understanding of psychiatric disorders. In describing the process of physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral development, the contributors emphasize the aspects of development of greatest interest to clinicians, and examine normal development in relation to its implications in clinical pathology.

Published in 1982, the Concept of Development is a valuable contribution to the feild of Developmental Psychology.

The 21st annual edition of a respected review. Covers developmental studies, child-care and methodological issues, temperament, clinical issues, autism, physical illness, child abuse, adolescence. Not indexed. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

International in scope and with contributions from the field's most eminent scientists and practitioners, The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology is a state-of-the-science volume providing comprehensive coverage of the psychological problems and disorders of childhood.

An important component of Division TEACCH's mandate from the Department of Psychiatry of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the North Carolina State Legislature is to conduct research aimed toward improving the understanding of developmental disabilities such as autism and to train the professionals who will be needed to work with this challenging population. An important mechanism to help meet these goals is our annual conference on topics of special importance for the understanding and treatment of autism and related disorders. As with the preceding books in this series entitled Current Issues in Autism, this most recent volume is based on one of these conferences. The books are not, however, simply published proceedings of conference papers. Instead, cer tain conference participants were asked to develop chapters around their pres entations, and other national and intemational experts whose work is beyond the scope of the conference but related to the conference theme were asked to contribute manuscripts as weil. These volumes are intended to provide the most current knowledge and professional practice available to us at this time.

Communication disabilities are common, although their precise nature and degree of severity vary greatly among individuals. They are among the most handicapping of disabilities because they isolate a person and in so doing restrict social, educational, and occupational opportunities. One of the purposes of this book was to bring together theoretical, practical, and clinical knowledge from several disciplines that bear on language and communication into some reasonably accessible form. The intent is to provide a broad and multi-faceted view of language development and language disorders. Thus, contributions from education, linguistics, psychology, pediatrics, psychiatry, neurology, neuropsychology, and speech therapy are included. They describe our current knowledge of language development, suggest classifications for language pathology, outline what is known of the epidemiology of language difficulties, consider assessment and therapy, alternative communication systems and the impact of the new technology on communication aids. The variety of perspectives that it provides will make it particularly useful to the range of specialists who are concerned with the development of communication skills and language disorders.

The Novartis Foundation Series is a popular collection of the proceedings from Novartis Foundation Symposia, in which groups of leading scientists from a range of topics across biology, chemistry and medicine assembled to present papers and discuss results. The Novartis Foundation, originally known as the Ciba Foundation, is well known to scientists and clinicians around the world.

Since the early 1800's, children have been taught and encouraged to function as instructional agents for their classroom peers. However, it was not until the last decade that peer-mediated intervention was studied in a rigorous, systematic fashion. The purpose of this edited volume is to provide an up-to-date and complete account of empirical research that addresses the general efficacy of classroom peers as behavior change agents. As a result of various social and legal developments, such as the passage of Public Law 94-142 and its accompanying demand for indi vidualized instruction, peer-mediated interventions seem likely to prolif erate. As I have noted elsewhere (Strain, this volume), close adherence to the principle of individualized programming has rendered obsolete the "adults only" model of classroom instruction. Whether the utilization of peers in the instructional process comes to be viewed by school personnel as a positive adjunct to daily classroom practices depends in large mea sure on our ability to carefully design, conduct, and communicate the findings of applied research. I trust that this volume will function both to accurately communicate existing findings and to stimulate further study. My colleagues who have generously contributed their time and skill to this volume have my deepest appreciation. They have performed their various tasks in a timely, professional manner and, in my opinion, have provided considerable insight into the problems and potentials of peers as instructional agents.

This volume is at once a tightly focussed exploration of one of the hottest areas in social and developmental psychology, and also a tribute to one of the field's leaders. For social & dev psychologists, educators, & family studies specialists.