Multisystemic therapy (MST) is a family- and community-based treatment that has successfully served as a clinical and cost-effective alternative to out-of-home placements (e.g. incarceration, psychiatric hospitalisation) for youths presenting serious clinical problems. MST clinical procedures and findings from MST outcome studies are reviewed. Several key features differentiate MST from prevailing mental health and juvenile justice practices and probably account for its relative success. These features include interventions that comprehensively address the known determinants of clinical problems, the provision of services in home and community settings to promote service access and ecological validity, and a philosophy that emphasises provider accountability for family engagement and outcomes.

In recent years, limitations of the discrepancy definition of specific reading difficulties have led researchers to propose that dyslexia is best described as a core phonological deficit. With studies of the normal development of reading as a backdrop, this paper reviews the phonological processing deficit hypothesis of dyslexia. The extant evidence suggests that phonological difficulties in dyslexia persist throughout development from the preschool years into adulthood, despite compensation of reading deficits. Moreover, individual differences in the behavioural manifestation of dyslexia are consistent with differences in the severity of underlying phonological difficulties. Implications for the early identification of dyslexia and for interventions to prevent reading failure are discussed.

In this review we consider the nature and possible developmental functions of three forms of play: pretend, social, and locomotor. Play is defined in terms of dispositional and contextual criteria. First, the frequency of occurrence of each form of play across the period of childhood is documented. Developmental function of play is conceptualised in terms of immediate or deferred beneficial consequences. Four strategies for examining developmental function are reviewed: arguments from design, correlational analyses, experimental enrichment and deprivation, and cost-benefit analyses. Whereas most theories of play implicitly assume that during childhood it occurs frequently and has benefits deferred until adulthood, we suggest that some benefits of play are immediate.

There are at least 50000 refugee children and adolescents in the UK, mostly living in London. These young people and their families will have been exposed to high levels of violence, disruption of social life and losses, all of which will increase their risk for psychiatric disorders. Up to 40% may have psychiatric disorders, mostly depression, posttraumatic stress disorder and other anxiety related difficulties. Multi-agency support to refugee youngsters and families is important. Some refugee children and adolescents will require help from specialist mental health services that will need to be flexible in view of the refugees' cultural diversity, mobility and the need for the full range of treatments. Special efforts are required to reach this vulnerable group, and links with social services and schools in particular should be considered.

Through a questionnaire survey, the present study investigated the coping strategies of Year 7 (11–12 years old) and Year 9 (13–14 years old) pupils (N = 324) to find out what strategies they have used to overcome the difficulties of being bullied by peers. Fifty-one UK secondary schools, in each of which an anti-bullying peer support system had been in place for at least a year, participated. The coping strategies of those pupils who said that they had told someone (N = 279) about being bullied were compared with those who said that they had not (N = 45). These coping strategies differ, not only according to whether or not they report the bullying, but also according to their age and gender. Implications of the findings for professionals who work with children and adolescents are suggested.

This article reviews research conducted over the past 20 years on the social competence of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). A substantial body of research suggests that children with ADHD experience significant interpersonal difficulties. The social competence of ADHD children is considered using three indices: typical social behaviours or social functioning, internal cognitive structures relating to the behaviours, and the products or outcomes of their social functioning. Possible mechanisms underlying their interpersonal difficulties are discussed. The article concludes by outlining the significance of these difficulties for later life outcomes, and emphasising the importance of uncovering the mechanisms by which these difficulties arise.

Most published questionnaires for infant sleep problems form part of general questionnaires looking at a wider range of infant behaviours. This paper evaluates the Infant Sleep Questionnaire (ISQ), a maternal self- report questionnaire designed specifically to assess sleeping behaviour in 12–18-month-old infants. The sensitivity and specificity of the ISQ as compared to maternal sleep diary measures is reported. The use of the ISQ for clinical and research purposes is discussed.

A review of the psychological, psychiatric, and social science literature revealed that parentification and role-reversal are terms that are used extensively, often without precise definition, although the implication is almost invariably that the process is pathogenic. An organismic rather than mechanistic view of the situation might suggest that, as is so often the case, whether the effects are adverse or not depends on a multitude of other factors. The final outcome for any individual can only be judged at the end of his or her life-span and the judgement will be largely subjective.

This review outlines some of the difficulties involved in assessing preschool children's language development. Language is a sensitive indicator of a range of developmental difficulties yet the accurate identification of children who are experiencing delays or disorders is problematic. A range of different approaches are used to identify and assess language problems including norm-referenced assessments, questionnaires and language samples. Each of these is critically evaluated. In particular the reliability and validity of the measures and their ability to discriminate atypical patterns of development is considered. It is concluded that there are no simple assessment tools that identify and assess language development. Moreover, the use of single measures is considered inadequate for determining whether a child at any age has typical or delayed language. Ways to circumvent the limitations of the assessment tools are considered.

Reviews of the literature on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically begin early in the twentieth century with the descriptions provided by paediatrician George Still. Physician Alexander Crichton, however, described all of the essential features of the Inattentive subtype of ADHD more than a century earlier than Still. This article presents a short biography of Crichton, looks at his 1798 publication describing attentional disorders in otherwise healthy individuals, contrasts his medical writing with the moralism of Still, and shows how his thoughts and observations are very much in accord with DSM-IV criteria for the Inattentive subtype of ADHD.

This review describes the current situation with regard to diagnostic instruments for Asperger syndrome. The paucity of such instruments, and the lack of adequate standardisation data amongst the few that do exist, represent a serious omission for both clinicians and researchers. The major problem limiting the development of effective diagnostic or screening instruments is the confusion inherent in ICD-10 and DSM-1V systems in differentiating autism from Asperger syndrome. In the absence of clear and clinically satisfactory diagnostic criteria, efforts to develop valid assessment instruments may be attempting to put the horse before the cart!

The child and adolescent version of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOSCA) represents the first attempt at a routine outcome measure for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in the U.K. Extensive field trials suggested that the scales were both acceptable to clinicians from the various disciplines working in this area and also valid and reliable. A growing number of services are now using the scales in audit and research, supported by the national HoNOSCA base that provides training and co-ordinates further developments.

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.

Structural Family Therapy was developed by Salvador Minuchin and colleagues during the 1960s as part of the growing interest in systemic ways of conceptualising human distress and relationship dilemmas, and in working therapeutically with those natural systems and relationships, thought to give rise to distress. Structural family therapy is underpinned by a clearly articulated model of family functioning, and has been developed and used most consistently in services for children and families. A growing body of empirical evidence attests to the efficacy of structural family therapy. As an approach it was extensively critiqued during the 1980s by feminist writers and during the 1990s by those interested in the implications of a social constructionist position. Structural family therapy continues to evolve in response to challenges mounted from within and outwith the systemic field, and as part of integrative practice and multi-systemic approaches, with practitioners ever mindful of the need for regular feedback from family members themselves.

Despite growing discussion of the potential benefits of openness in relation to children conceived by donated gametes, the majority of parents do not intend to tell a future child about his/her origins. As a result little is actually known about the experiences and concerns of families who do choose openness. This is a descriptive study of 83 DI Network members who did intend to or had told a child conceived, using donor insemination, about his/her origins. Quantitative and qualitative data focused on their concerns and experiences of telling. Health professionals face the challenge of providing the opportunity for discussion of these issues both before treatment and afterwards during childhood.

The education of children with behavioural difficulties is under scrutiny from various quarters. The provision of specialised school environments is being questioned, at the same time as there is pressure to minimise the exclusion of disruptive pupils. This study looked at the rate of psychiatric disorder that was prevalent in a school for emotionally and behaviourally disordered (EBD) pupils, and found, using DSM III-R criteria, that 24% of the sample had depression, 11% had overanxiousness, and 70% had a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADHD). Educational attainment assessment showed that 75% had a reading age that was at least 2 years below their chronological age. These results suggest that such settings are dealing with a very disturbed group of youngsters.

Peers have both positive and negative influences on children; therefore, considerable attention has focused on assessing peer relationships and friendships through childhood and adolescence. The present article provides an overview of the main methods of assessing peer relationships. The adaptive nature of children's peer relations has been assessed through four main methodologies: (1) asking the children themselves about elements of peer relations and friendships; (2) asking children about their perceptions of others within the peer group; (3) asking adults (i.e. parents and teachers) about the peer relations skills of children in their care; and (4) directly observing children during interactions with peers. Each of these approaches is described, with attention to relative strengths and weaknesses and their suitability for assessing peer relations in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

Despite some disagreements among the respective authors, the previous two articles contain many thoughtful recommendations about how to conceptualise reading disability. My reactions will be organised around two issues: the role of intelligence in understanding reading disability and the implications that recent work on subtypes has for the phonological core deficit model.

The authors examine the historical framework within which child psychotherapists have used play. They discuss developments in theory and technique influenced by advances in psychoanalytic thinking, child development studies, and clinical work with severely deprived and disturbed patients.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in methods of eliciting children's views on factors influencing their lives. When children's views are sought it is important that this is done in a developmentally appropriate manner with instruments whose psychometric properties are known. The present review describes a variety of methods that have been used to evaluate children's satisfaction with services in education, paediatrics and mental health. The majority of the studies used self-completion questionnaires and provided only limited information on reliability. Means of establishing reliability and validity in research with children are discussed, as are the variables that have been found to correlate with child satisfaction.