Linda Dowdney's 6-year term as an Editor of Child Psychology & Psychiatry Review has come to an end, and she is stepping down. As her co-editor, I would like to pay tribute to her unstinting work. Linda became co-editor by joining Jonathan Hill at the end of 1992, taking over from Barbara Maughan. At that time the old ACPP Review & Newsletter appeared six times a year. However, it soon became obvious that it was worthwhile re-styling and upgrading the ACPP Review & Newsletter to a peer-reviewed journal, so Linda and Jonathan planned this together with the Council of the ACPP. Progress was slow, but finally in 1995 all was agreed. Jonathan Hill withdrew in 1995 and I took his place.

As the ‘decade of the brain’ comes to a close, it is clear that the field of neuropsychology has made many vital contributions to evaluation, treatment, and research issues in child and adolescent health care. In the study of brain-behaviour relationships, the neuropsychologist plays a unique role. The practice of child neuropsychology is differentiated from adult work because developmental and environmental influences have a significant impact on practice. The various goals of the child neuropsychologist may include psychoeducational and neuropsychological assessment, the exploration of brain-behaviour relationships, consultation with a variety of professionals ranging from teachers to neurologists, and rehabilitation training. Advances in medical treatment have contributed to an expanding population of children and adolescents with neurological and/or neuropsychiatric concerns. New research in this field has also provided evidence of disordered or dysfunctional neurological systems in a number of childhood disorders and psychiatric conditions. This paper reviews some contributions that neuropsychology has made to the health care of children and adolescents in the past decade.

Personal construct psychology is presented and its application within a school setting is described. Using case material derived from working with an 11-year-old pupil displaying highly disruptive behaviour, the strengths and limitations of this approach are illustrated. Personal construct psychology can increase pupil and teacher understanding of behavioural difficulties and lead directly to individualised strategies for successful intervention.

The aim of this postal survey was to highlight differences in temperament and behaviour between 32 toddlers in Japanese families living temporarily in London and 36 in British families, all in London. Mothers completed questionnaires about demography, perinatal events, and their child's temperament and behaviour. UK toddlers were described as exhibiting fewer behavioural symptoms than Japanese toddlers. Significantly more of the Japanese toddlers scored above the cutoff on the Behaviour Check List, indicating higher levels of behavioural disturbance. An interesting item is ‘sleeping with parent’, which occurs commonly in Japanese families and is considered to be normal for that culture. On the Toddler Temperament Scale the Japanese toddlers proved more distractable and more intense than the UK toddlers when age had been allowed for. It was of interest that Japanese girls proved more distractable than Japanese boys and UK girls. Possible explanations for the differences are advanced.

There has been a resurgence of interest in the use of projective doll play techniques, partly arising out of the recognition of the sophistication of young children's play. This review considers a number of recent projective doll play innovations and evaluates the utility of these techniques for investigating young children's moral development, attachment beyond infancy, and for predicting behaviour problems. In addition, the use of these techniques with high-risk and clinical populations is described and a discussion of factors influencing the quality of projective play responses is presented.