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Caregiver Perceptions of the Young Child: Assessment and Treatment Implications

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Clinical Guide to Psychiatric Assessment of Infants and Young Children

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Abstract

Understanding the caregiver’s view of their child is central to working with very young children. This chapter will describe the tools used to explore the caregiver’s internal working model, their perceptions of the child, and the child’s world. It will also examine how a caregiver may place unconscious projections onto their child, which are influenced by cultural values, the caregiver’s own history of being parented, caregiver traumas, and the caregiver’s ghosts and angels in their nursery. Interviews like the Working Model of the Child Interview, the Adult Attachment Interview, the Angels in the Nursery Interview and the Circle of Security Interview (COSI) which help the clinician understand these complex factors that influence a caregiver’s perception of their child will be discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Amy Dickson

  2. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA

    Shannon Bekman

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  1. Amy Dickson
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  2. Shannon Bekman
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Correspondence to Amy Dickson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Irving Harris Program in Child Development and Infant Mental Health, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA

    Karen A. Frankel

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Joyce Harrison

  3. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Wanjiku F. M. Njoroge

  4. Young Child Clinic, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Wanjiku F. M. Njoroge

  5. Policy Lab, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Wanjiku F. M. Njoroge

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Wanjiku F. M. Njoroge

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Dickson, A., Bekman, S. (2019). Caregiver Perceptions of the Young Child: Assessment and Treatment Implications. In: Frankel, K.A., Harrison, J., Njoroge, W.F.M. (eds) Clinical Guide to Psychiatric Assessment of Infants and Young Children. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10635-5_3

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