Prenatal Exposures

Children are being diagnosed with psychopathologies at alarming rates. Not surprisingly, their behavioral and educational outcomes are increasingly compromised. The financial costs of treating childhood disabilities are spiraling out of control, and the emotional and social toll on students, families, schools, the penal system, and society as a whole is staggering.

With proper care during pregnancy, medical professionals can now help expectant mothers prevent many physical birth defects. But prevention and intervention techniques remain elusive for abnormal fetal development that manifests later in life as behavioral problems. Researchers in the field of behavioral teratology continue to search for answers - prevention and intervention techniques - that will lead to improved behavioral and education outcomes for children.

In this first compendium in the growing literature of behavioral teratology, readers will discover an easy-to-access, concise presentation that:

• Synthesizes important findings that help explain why prenatal events may result in abnormal behavior and learning disabilities later in life.

• Examines the role of prenatal perturbations, along with genetics and the postnatal roles of caretakers and the social environment, in light of how each may - individually or together - contribute to conditions as varied as dyslexia, schizophrenia, fetal alcohol syndrome, and autism.

• Ensures that effective prevention and intervention can occur during the prenatal phases of development.

• Addresses the research needs in behavioral teratology that are likely to lead to discoveries that may ensure the birth of healthier babies who develop normally across the lifespan.

• Provides a brief medical glossary that details terminology specifically related to fetal development and birth. With its multidisciplinary approach, this volume is a must-have resource for clinical child and school psychologists; educational professionals; medical practitioners; social workers and counselors as well as researchers and graduate students in these areas. In addition, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and other medical professionals - including such disciplines as epidemiology, reproductive biology, psychiatry, pediatrics, obstetrics, neonatology, among others - will find this book highly useful.

Martin and Dombrowski's new book, Prenatal Exposures: Psychological and Educational Consequences for Children (Springer, 2008), is well documented and incisive. They collect in one volume an impressive amount of scientific evidence, and they do not stray far from this evidentiary base when drawing conclusions and identifying trends that may inform future research and current practices. Thanks to these characteristics this text is authoritative and, therefore, of particular importance for graduate training in pediatrics, child and school psychology, nursing, and preparation of other professionals who commonly have to estimate the potential impact of proven and purported teratogens. I congratulate the authors on this accomplishment and recommend highly their text for researchers and clinicians alike.

R.W. Kamphaus, Ph.D.

Dean and Distinguished Research Professor College of Education, Georgia State University

Autorentext

Roy Martin, Ph.D., obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Texas. He is a licensed psychologist and a diplomate in professional psychology. He has spent his career training school psychologists, first at Temple University, then at the University of Georgia. At the University of Georgia he served in various administrative positions including Head of the Department of Educational Psychology. He also has been elected president of the School Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, and is a fellow of three divisions of APA. He is the recipient of the Jack Bardon Award in School Psychology, and the Aderhold Distinguished Professor Award from the University of Georgia. He has been an active contributor to research on temperament in young children, and to prenatal factors that are associated with adverse psychological and educational outcomes for children.

Stefan C. Dombrowski, Ph.D., is a graduate of the University of Georgia. He completed a post doctoral fellowship in clinical child psychology at the University of California, Davis Medical Center. He is a Professor and the Director of the School Psychology Training program at Rider University. Dr. Dombrowski is also a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist. He has published widely, including in the areas of child abuse and psychometry. He also is an active researcher in the area of prenatal exposures as they adversely impact children's psychological, behavioral, and educational functioning.

Inhalt
Section I: Introduction.- The importance of the prenatal central nervous system development.- Overview prenatal central nervous system development.- Section II: The demography of normal and abnormal childbirth.- Normal birth patterns.- Demographic characteristics resulting in fetal death: a model for fetal developmental risk.- Section III: Prematurity and low birth weight: The great mediator of developmental pathologies.- Prematurity and low birth weight: Defining the problem.- Prematurity and low birth weight: Learning and behavior outcomes.- Section IV: Maternal ingested toxins.- Maternal smoking.- Maternal alcohol use.- Maternal use of other recreational drugs.- Sections V: Maternal medical and psychological conditions.- Prenatal nutrition.- Maternal infection.- Maternal illness other than infection.- Maternal stress during pregnancy.- Other maternal characteristics.- Perinatal events: delivery complications.- Section VI: Environmental factors.- Environmental toxins: Air, water, and food pollutants.- Temperature, photoperiod, and other geophysical factors.- Section VII: Summary.- A model of prenatal perturbations to development.- Screening for prenatal perturbation in clinical work.- Appendix.