Book Review
Child Psychiatry
The Infant and Family in the Twenty-First Century. Joao Gomes-Pedro, J Kevin Nugent, J Gerald Young, T Berry Brazelton, editors. New York: Brunner-Routledge; 2002. 343 p. US$79.95.
Reviewer
rating*: Good
Review by: Pratibha N Reebye, MBBS, DPM, MRCPsych, FRCPC
Vancouver, British Columbia
This book is the first volume in the new Mentor series on topics of current interest in child and adolescent psychiatry. The editors attempt to maintain the title theme—the infant and family in the 21st century—throughout. All 16 authors are either well-known authorities in the infant health field or distinguished researchers in infant development. In this review, I adhere to the book’s thematic model and do not refer specifically to individual authors and their contributions.
I liked the book’s organization into 5 distinct parts with unique themes. Although these themes interlock, they can stand on their own. They are as follows: Part 1, “The Family in the Twenty-First Century”; Part 2, “New Directions in Infancy Research”; Part 3, “The Ontogeny of the Parent–Child Relationship”; Part 4, “Intervention Priorities for the Twenty- First Century”; and Part 5, “Culture, Family, and Infant in the Twenty-First Century: Converging Clinical Science and Neuroscience Views of Developing Adaptive Mechanisms.” All 5 parts are divided into different chapters authored by experts in the field.
In Part 1, the author describes his dream for Baby XXI, the infant of the 21st century, and discusses her place in the new- century family, her reception by family members, and her cultural acceptance in her milieu.
Basing his argument on available research, the author argues for non- medicalization of childbirth and increased doula (a woman companion) support for mothers to facilitate Baby XXI’s entry in the world.
This author also discusses the use of “touch points” to provide anticipatory guidance to parents regarding their baby’s developmental spurts. Touch points are powerful psychological events wherein health workers share the growth patterns of infants with their parents and other caregivers at predictably vulnerable times. Touch-point mapping prepares parents and other caregivers to understand Baby XXI’s physical and emotional development.
Part 2 deals with new directions in infancy research. It was somewhat disappointing, with many outdated references. One exception was the discussion of how a maternal voice soothes newborns. Unfortunately, Part 2 offers no directions for equipping Baby XXI for such complex environmental stimuli as mechanical sounds in the special-care nursery, traffic sounds, or busy and overstimulating daycare. This part’s last chapter discusses the cultural context of child development. Clinicians serving multicultural populations will find it particularly well written and interesting.
Part 3 addresses parent–infant speech patterns and the individual development of infants in terms of parent–infant patterns, including attachment. It offers an excellent chapter entitled “Primer of Getting Acquainted with (Your Infant).” Part 3 is definitely useful for clinicians who want to understand the complex preverbal infant and the core skills that infants should develop in this period. The author describes 5 core skills necessary for the baby’s optimum development: the capacity for sustained visual attention, hunger for interaction, affiliative behaviour, targeted organization of gestures, and imitation. Nondifferentiation of these core skills during the first year is postulated as an indicator of developmental difficulties. This information should help family physicians, who are often the first to diagnose developmental delays.
To describe treatment realities for Baby XXI, Part 4 introduces some lesser- known concepts. For example, the author’s vision includes the concept of “total-population pediatrics.” An innovative concept termed “educare,” meant to replace the early childhood field, is also discussed. This novel concept of educare is intended both to help Baby XXI and to prepare the adult Baby XXI to provide optimally for her own children.
Part 5 was decidedly my favourite section. Here, the authors describe comparative research in other species, build the reader’s knowledge base, and progress smoothly to interventions that parents and clinicians can construct together using this information. They also describe well the experience-responsive development of neural structures in infants.
In summary, this section makes sense of genetic regulation and (or) facilitation of infant environments in promoting well- grounded infants equipped with both self-regulation and social regulation capacities.
Ultimately, the investigators offer hope that appropriate policies, parent education, and guided research can provide practical and successful interventions for Baby XXI.
This is a landmark book, and I am looking forward to new volumes in this Mentor series. I recommend it for clinicians who will be dealing with Baby XXI, for infant health researchers, and most important, for early childhood.
*Reviewer
Rating Scale/ Échelle d’évaluation du réviseur
Excellent / Excellent
Very Good / Très bon
Good / Bon
Fair / Passable
Not recommended / Pas recommandé
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