Clinicians are often faced with meaningful child/family mental health concerns, and yet suggesting a helpful course of action can be very challenging. While pediatricians routinely use a developmental framework to evaluate young children’s cognitive, motor, and language skills, this occurs much less frequently for social-emotional development. Only recently have newer models of child development been put forth that emphasize the central role that emotions play in organizing the interactions among cognitive, motor, and language development across the lifespan. We review such a model of social-emotional growth and consider its implications for use in primary care settings.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Jellinek M, Patel BP, Froehle MC, eds. Bright Futures in Practice: Mental Health, Volume I, Practice Guide; Volume II, Tool Kit. Arlington, VA: National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health; 2002.
2.
Greenspan S, Weider S. Floor Time Techniques and the DIR Model: For Children and Families with Special Needs. Training Videotape Series, Bethesda, MD: Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders; 2001.
3.
Emde RN. A developmental psychiatrist looks at infant mental health challenges for early head start: understanding context and overcoming avoidance. Zero to Three. 2001;22:21-24.
4.
Zeanah C, Zeanah P. Towards a definition of infant mental health. Zero to Three. 2001;22:13-20.
5.
Lazare A. Shame, humiliation, and stigma in the medical interview. In: Lipkin M, Putnam SM, Lazare A, eds. The Medical Interview: Clinical Care, Education, and Research. New York: Springer-Verlag; 1995:333-344.
6.
Hinshaw S, Cicchetti D. Stigma and mental disorder: conceptions of illness, public attitudes, personal disclosure, and social policy. Dev Psychopathol. 2000;12:555-598.
7.
Greenspan S. The Growth of the Mind and the Endangered Origins of Intelligence. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing; 1997:51, 55, 61, 69, 76, 78, 187.
8.
Brazelton TB, Greenspan S. The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish, Cambridge, MA: Perseus Press; 2000.
9.
Zeanah C. Disturbances and Disorders of Attachment. Presented at the Ohio Association for Infant Mental Health Fall Conference, Deer Creek, OH, 2002.
10.
Nugent JK. Preventive infant mental health: uses of the Brazelton Scale. In: Osofsky JD, Fitzgerald, eds. WAIMH: Handbook of Infant Mental Health: Early Intervention, Evaluation, Assessment. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2000:159-202.
11.
Greenspan S. Playground Politics: Understanding the Emotional Life of Your School-Age Child, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company; 1993:18-24.
12.
Thomasgard M. Working with challenging young children: relations between child temperament, response to novelty and sensory processing. Clin Pediatr. 2003;42:197-204.
13.
Stern D. The Interpersonal World of the Infant. New York: Basic Books, 1985.
14.
Christopherson E. Pediatric Compliance: A Guide for the Primary Care Physician, New York: Plenum Medical Book Company; 1994.
15.
White RW. Motivation reconsidered: the concept of competence. Psychol Rev. 1959;66:297-333.
16.
Achenbach T, Rescorla L. Child Behavior Checklist 11/2-5. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont; 2000.
17.
Achenbach T. Caregiver-Teacher Report Form for Ages 11/2-5. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont; 1997.
