Prenatal Exposures Psychological and Educational Consequences for Children [Hardcover]

In this first compendium in the growing literature of behavioral teratology, readers will discover an easy-to-access, concise presentation that covers a huge range of subjects. The book synthesizes important findings that help explain why prenatal events may result in abnormal behavior and learning disabilities later in life. It goes further to examine the role of prenatal perturbations in conditions as varied as dyslexia, schizophrenia, fetal alcohol syndrome, and autism.

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 canlóZ