This book provides early intervention service providers with strategies for working with families at highest risk. It is one of the few books to focus on the treatment of families at psychosocial risk, outlining an integrative approach to early intervention, and providing both a theoretical and a very practical approach to intervention with the most at-risk families. Each chapter includes a definition of the topic being discussed, key research results on the topic as it relates to early intervention and multi-risk families, the topics implications for child development, and practical strategies for parents.

Dr. Landy is a developmental and specialist clinical psychologist at Family Pathways, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, Perth, Western Australia. She is also an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and an adjunct professor at York University in Toronto.

Dr. Landy has worked for more than 20 years in the field of early intervention. Among her many published works, she has written several articles and contributed to books on various topics related to the assessment and treatment of infants, young children, and their families, including "Parenting Infants from Birth to Two Years," in Parenting in America (ARC Clio, 2000) with Rosanne Menna; "Assessment and Evaluation in Community Settings," in the World Handbook of Infant Mental Health (John Wiley (c)2000); and "Difficult Behaviours: When Your Child Seems Out of Control," from The New Baby and Child Care Encyclopedia (Family Communications, Inc., 1995).

Dr. Landy has been involved in a variety of aspects of early intervention, including program development, program management as director and clinical director, research, consultation, teaching and training, and clinical practice. The programs she has initiated and developed include a tracking system for infants and young children in which mothers and children were assessed for any risks during the childrens first 5 years and provided with interventions when necessary. She has also been instrumental in creating developmental services and community-based services for families at psychosocial risk.

Dr. Landys current interests and activities include assessment and treatment of young children with severe developmental, behavioral, and emotional and social problems of various kinds; intervention with high-risk families with young children; program development; and training. Dr. Landy has long been an advocate for programs that can reach and be relevant for the most at-risk families.

Rosanne Menna, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. She is a clinical psychologist and is active in the supervision and training of clinicians. She became involved in the area of early intervention and treatment of high-risk families while she was a postdoctoral fellow in developmental psychopathology at the Hincks-Dellcrest Institute.

She has published articles and contributed to books on topics concerned with child development, parenting, developmental psychopathology, and the assessment and treatment of children and their families. Her research focuses on the development of competence and coping in children and adolescents and the risk for developmental psychopathology. In her private practice she works with children, adolescents, and families; supervises clinicians; and offers consultation to mental health agencies and child care centers.

Setting the Stage & Theoretical Framework; Early Intervention Research and Implications for Practice; Characteristics of Multi-Risk Families; An Integrative Theoretical Framework for Early Intervention with Multi-Risk Families; Engaging and Supporting Multi-Risk Families; Illustrative Case Studies; Reaching and Engaging Multi-Risk Families; Improving Parental Defensive Functioning; Enhancing Parental Self Reflectivity and Empathy for the Child; Enhancing Parents Sense of Competence and Social Support; Intervening to Meet the Complex Needs of Multi-Risk Families; Intervening with Parents with Unresolved Loss and Trauma; Enhancing Parent Interactions with Infants and Young Children; Encouraging Emotion Regulation in Parents; Encouraging Parents Positive Attributions and Changing Negative Attributions of the Child; Enhancing the Planning and Problem-Solving of Parents; Pulling It All Together & Coordinating the Interventions; Putting the Pieces Together and Facilitating the Process of Change; Supporting Work with Multi-Risk Families; Within Programs, Organizations and the Service System; Putting Intervention with Multi-Risk Families into Perspective

"A scholarly tour de force ... that truly informs and advances family and context-focused early intervention."

--Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Ph.D.