Children in Difficulty: A Guide to Understanding and Helping

This fully updated fourth edition of Children in Difficulty explores some of the most common, yet incapacitating, difficulties often encountered by young children and adolescents. Drawing on the latest research and with case studies throughout, chapters cover topics such as challenging behaviour and school refusal, eating disorders, anxiety and depression, substance misuse, neurodevelopmental disorders, dyslexia and dyspraxia.

The book provides a deeper understanding of each difficulty, considering the complexities of each problem at depth and analysing the best forms of intervention. It includes insights from the fields of genetics and neuroscience, and ensures that claims for the effectiveness of specific interventions are supported by rigorous scientific evidence.

Features of this new edition include:

• Up-to-date insights from the fields of psychology, genetics and neuroscience
• Recognition of the increasing impact of social media and the internet on children and young people.

Written by experts in the field, this book distils high level scientific and clinical knowledge in a way that is accessible to professionals from a range of child-care disciplines. It will be of significant value to those working in education, health or social care, and anyone who needs to be able to recognise and help children in difficulty.

Julian Elliott is Principal of Collingwood College and Professor of Educational Psychology at Durham University, UK.

Maurice Place is Visiting Professor of Child and Family Psychiatry at Northumbria University, UK.