This ground-breaking book takes a new approach to the assessment of behaviour in children and adolescents. Written by an expert author team, combining one (Jonathan Williams) with higher qualifications in general practice, child neuropsychiatry, and child and adolescent psychiatry, with one (Peter Hill) with higher qualifications in medicine, paediatrics and child and adolescent psychiatry, the book draws on many thousands of multidisciplinary case discussions, at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in the Children’s Multispecialty Assessment Clinic in North London, and in private practice.

The book is ... Read moreideal for the busy mental health professional working in a small team. Organised to allow rapid look-up of behaviours with comprehensive lists of their possible causes, it synthesizes research evidence and clinical experience. The authors interpret behaviour broadly, including not just voluntary actions, but also actions whose voluntary nature is questionable (such as drop attacks, personal preferences, and pseudobehaviours). They also include problems that lead to referral through their behavioural manifestations (e.g. aggression, anxiety, or a poor relationship with mother). Overall, the book spans the behavioural, cognitive, social and emotional problems of children and adolescents.

With the child and family in the room, and with detailed school reports and psychometric results available, it is usually possible to identify causes of symptoms that are specific to the child and his environment, and which can guide behavioural, cognitive, social, and family interventions.

Purchasers of the book will also be entitled to a Wiley Desktop Edition—an interactive digital version featuring downloadable text and images, highlighting and note taking facilities, in-text searching, and linking to references and glossary terms.