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This volume presents a thorough clinical review of some of the issues in clinical practice with children that concern language development and disability. It provides an adequate background for the definition of linguistic problems in childhood psychoses and varieties of dysphasia and aphasia. The stages of development of language are spelled out to allow for the reader's fullest grasp of the role of cognitive and linguistic determinants. The way in which language, looked at as an autonomous function, applies to general ego organization is also considered. There are summary chapters on diagnosis and the interpretation of psychological testing of dysphasic and psychotic children.
The chapter concerning childhood psychosis will be of special interest to the psychiatrist. The authors present a thoroughgoing historical review and perspective on the problems that have confronted child psychiatrists in recognizing and diagnosing autism and schizophrenia in childhood. The changing trends in diagnostic emphasis parallel aspects of the changing trends in diagnosis in American psychiatry as a whole. This chapter also provides the readers with help in discerning the problem with which child psychiatrists struggle in their relationship to other professionals who deal with children. The lack of emphasis in child psychiatric training on language development, deficits, and deviance places the profession at a disadvantage vis-à-vis special educators, speech pathologists, and