Interviewing Children and Adolescents

Child psychiatrist Tom Anders and I have written a book that melds interviewing technique with the nuts and bolts of DSM-IV diagnosis. The first third of this volume is a guide to interviewing children of all ages. We take readers step by step through the initial interview, describing and illustrating what you need to do to establish rapport, what kind of information to seek, and how to obtain it. We present guidelines for interviewing preschoolers, schoolage children, and teens and show you how to structure the evaluation for best results using such techniques as directive and nondirective questioning, art activities, play, and family interviews. Verbatim excerpts from six actual interviews demonstrate how seasoned clinicians tailor their evaluations to the child's developmental level and personality, engage hard-to-reach clients, and zero in on clinically relevant data. We then review the components of an effective written report.

The second part of this 480-page book follows the format of DSM-IV Made Easy. Here, we bring you diagnostic information about 28 mental and behavioral disorders that are usually first diagnosed in childhood, as well as 32 "adult" disorders as they may be encountered in children. We have translated the sometimes difficult DSM-IV criteria into straightforward prose and highlighted the differences in presentation that can be expected at different developmental stages. Special features include 45 detailed case vignettes, pointers for interviewing about specific disorders, and quick-reference tables and charts to facilitate rapid differential diagnosis.