WAIMH Handbook of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (eBook)

This book examines basic knowledge in the field of infant and early childhood mental health. It focuses on cognitive, social, and emotional development of infants and toddlers and examines different aspects of neurobiological development, including genes and epigenetics as well as biobehavioral synchrony. In addition, the book addresses parenting and caregiving issues, including attachment, parent-infant relationships, and high-risk factors (e.g., the effects of trauma on the infant-caregiver relationship, adolescent parenting, and parents with substance abuse disorders).

Joy D. Osofsky, Ph.D. is a clinical and developmental psychologist, Ramsay Chair of Psychiatry and Barbara Lemann Professor of Child Welfare at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. She has published widely authoring or editing  seven books on trauma in the lives of children. Dr. Osofsky is past president of ZERO to THREE and World Association for Infant Mental Health. She serves as Clinical Consultant on the Leadership team for Zero to Three Infant Toddler Court Program and Co-Principal Investigator for NCTSN Center, Terrorism and Disaster Coalition for Child and Family Resilience. In 2021, she was honored with the ZERO to THREE Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Hiram E Fitzgerald, PhD, IMH-E® IV is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. His major areas of research include the study of infant and family development, risk, resilient and adverse childhood experiences, the impact of fathers on early child development, and the etiology of alcohol use disorders. He is past executive director of WAIMH, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and the Association of Psychological Science. He is a recipient of the designation 'Honorary President' of the World Association of Infant Mental Health, and   the ZERO to THREE Dolley Madison Lifetime Achievement Award.

Miri Keren, MD. is Assistant Clinical Professor Emeritus at the Tel Aviv University Sackler Medical School.  Her main research interests are about infant psychopathology and diagnoses, eating disorders  in infancy, parental psychopathology and parenting, parent-Infant relationships disorders, and PTSD of infancy. As President of the World Association of Infant Mental Health in the years 2012-2016, she has been very invested in the implementation of a declaration of Infant's Rights. In 2000, she founded the Israeli WAIMH Affiliate and is currently its Honorary President, and she is Chairperson of the World Psychiatric Association Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Section. She received the WAIMH Lebovici Award in June 2021.

Kaija Pura, MD, PhD. is Professor of Child Psychiatry in Tampere University, Finland, and Chief Physician in the Department of Child Psychiatry in Tampere University Hospital. She has authored or co-authored over 90 peer reviewed articles, chapters, and books on assessment and treatment of young children. She is a child mental health expert and advisor for the national children's TV-program 'Jyrkin ja Neposen kommervenkkejä,'an Associate Editor of the Infant Mental Health Journal, Executive Director of the World Association for Infant Mental Health,  Vice President of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, and President of the Finnish Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry