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Fifty-two 44-month-old children were observed in a nursery school over a period of two weeks with peer and adult oriented behaviors recorded, and data analyzed in terms of the subjects' sex and birth order. Sex effects were as expected, but birth-order effects highlighted the second-born child as representing a distinct category. In particular, second-born children manifested greater dependency behavior than either first- or later-borns. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between maternal responsiveness to attention-seeking behavior in infancy and later dependency behavior; i.e., parental responsiveness leads to less not more dependency behavior in later childhood. It is suggested that because the second-born child receives less attention in infancy, he later exhibits more dependency behavior. (Author/LH)

THIS STUDY WAS THE FIRST PHASE OF A THREE-PART PROJECT WHOSE GOAL IS TO ESTABLISH VALID CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING THE HOUSE-TREE-PERSON (H-T-P) DRAWINGS OF NORMAL CHILDREN THROUGHOUT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS. THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE (1) TO IDENTIFY WHICH ITEMS OF THE H-T-P TEST CHARACTERIZE NORMAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH GRADES 2, 3, AND 5 AND (2) TO SET UP A SHORT, WORKABLE SCORING SYSTEM BY WHICH LARGE GROUPS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN COULD BE SCREENED FOR NORMAL DEVELOPMENT. THE H-T-P TEST WAS SCORED FOR THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF 821 QUALITATIVE ITEMS AND FOR 12 QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS. BY OMITTING THOSE ITEMS WHICH WERE AMBIGUOUS, DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND OR SCORE, OR IRRELEVANT TO DEVELOPMENT, THE INVESTIGATOR SELECTED 57 ITEMS FOR THE SCORING SYSTEM. IT WAS FELT THAT THE TENTATIVE SCORING SYSTEM DEVISED FOR THIS STUDY COULD BE USED ONLY FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES. (GD)

This memorandum is directed to the question of the appropriate Federal and Office of Education roles in early childhood education, specifically, what programs or approaches will meet the objectives and diverse needs of the proponents for preschool programs. In particular: (1) is there a need for some form of federally funded early childhood programs; and (2) if so, should they be "educational" in the traditional sense of the term? The issues are discussed under the following general topics: (1) Relevant Societal Conditions; (2) The Constituency; (3) The Issues; (4) The Need and Costs of Day Care; (5) The Federal Effort; (6) The Research Evidence; and (7) Recommendations and Conclusions. Statistical data are presented in tables and illustrations, and 129 references to related documents are included. (LS)

In these hearings, the following witnesses presented testimony: Dr. Henry E. Garrett, Chairman, Psychology Department (Emeritus), Columbia University; Dr. Arthur R. Jensen, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of California at Berkeley; Dr. Frank C. J. McGurk, Professor of Psychology, University of Montevallo; Dr. R. Travis Osborne, Professor of Psychology, University of Georgia; Mr. Archie Sabin, Statistician; Dr. William Shockley, Professor of Engineering Science, Stanford University; and, Dr. Ernest Van Den Haag, Professor of Social Philosophy, New York University. (Several published articles, part of the original transcript of these hearings, have not been reproduced.) (SB)

The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain whether the age specific expectations of Piaget's theory (1965) regarding the development of moral judgment in children from four to seven years of age were modifiable through use of a certain adaptation of Bandura and McDonald's imitative learning paradigm which had utilized adult models. In this study of pro-social learning of pre-school and first grade children, an adaptation of the social learning paradigm involved the introduction of a 20 minute film (1) using glove-type, hand manipulated puppets as models to act out Piaget-type stories, and (2) affording vicarious reinforcement from a six-year-old peer throughout the treatment in an effort to maximize the resultant acquisition of those moral judgments that involve the distinction between social acts of intentionality or accident. Studied were 80 children enrolled in six public and private schools from middle class socioeconomic backgrounds, in the area of Redlands-San Bernardino, California. Pretest results showed that there were no significant differences between the subjects across all age categories from four- to seven-years. The variable of age, for both the two-week delayed posttest, yielded no significant differences in average performance. It is concluded that the use of the film was a vehicle for promoting moral development and that the posttest results afforded a basis for questioning the age-specific expectations of Piaget's theory. [Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document.] (Author/LS)

This study compared self-regulation and external regulation procedures in the treatment of children's disruptive classroom behavior. Following the collection of baseline data, three of the four most disruptive children in each of 10 first and second grade classrooms were reinforced by the experimenter for achieving low rates of disruptive behavior. The fourth child served as a control subject throughout the experiment. Two of the three experimental subjects were then taught to self-observe their own disruptive behavior. In the final reinforcement period, these subjects were given control over dispensing reinforcers to themselves, based on their self-collected behavioral data while subjects in the other experimental group continued with the externally managed reinforcement. In extinction, reinforcement was discontinued for all subjects, but one of the self-regulation subjects in each classroom continued to overtly self-observe. Results indicated that both reinforcement programs produced a considerable reduction in disruptive behavior. The self-regulation procedures were slightly more effective in reducing disruptiveness than was the external regulation procedure and this advantage persisted into extinction. These results suggest that self-regulation procedures provide a practical, inexpensive, and powerful alternative in dealing with disruptive behavior in children. (Author)

Infants in four age groups--three, six, nine and twelve months--were exposed to an experimental procedure designed to assess the extent to which such subjects were capable of discriminating between different orientations of the same form, and the extent to which they were capable of recognizing the identity between different orientations of the same form. Results revealed that from at least as early as six months-infants manifest both kinds of perceptual ability. (Author)

A progress report on an experiment begun in 1968, originally entitled "Experimental Variation of Head Start Curricula: A Comparison of Current Approaches," is given. Children were taught by one of four methods in Head Start at age of four years. In Kindergarten and first-grade years most had either Follow Through or Regular programs. Monitoring of classrooms was done through first-grade year. Results show Head Start program differences on Binet IQ obtained in prekindergarten year had disappeared by end of first grade, following steady decline for all groups. Experimental Head Starts were equal to city median and superior to similar (Title I) schools. (NF)

This case study booklet, written by the program's counseling staff, evolved from five actual cases in which a psychologist and counselors were involved. Both the techniques and the results are specified in the hope that counselors and psychologists in other districts will attempt similar methods in helping children with deviant behavior problems. Although names of the children have been changed for their protection, all the techniques and data presented are accurate. Case studies include the use of counseling groups to promote positive peer relationships, counseling with behavioral methods in the classroom, the use of the behavior modification techniques of contracting, positive reinforcement, and successive approximation. (Author/SES)

The Children's Television Workshop (CTW), responsible for the programs "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company", conducted extensive research into the systematic use of television to promote the social, emotional, and intellectual growth of young children. Working without precedents in the field of formative research practice, CTW was able to establish an operational model that included behavioral goals, competence testing, experimental production and the Writer's Notebook, a valuable asset emphasizing psychological processes, the child's experimental referents, and unbiased suggestions from the program itself. The subsequent Model for Research on Presentational Learning investigated the relationship between program attributes (appeal, comprehensibility, activity eliciting potential) and the internal compatibility of elements and "viewer outcomes". CTW found that this formative research approach was compatible with the trend toward explicit definition of instructional objectives followed by systematic trial and revision of instructional systems for achieving them. (MC)

The technique of intervention in which the mother directly treats her child is illustrated by a case study of a five-year-old child. In the study, descriptions are provided of the therapist's sessions with the mother, the mother's work with her daughter, and the impact on the child's functioning as the treatment unfolds. Some of the potential hazards and limitations of this technique are also discussed. (DB)

A preliminary report is provided on a therapeutic nursery school program at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans. The program emphasizes the mother-child unit rather than the child as a single individual. Within the mother-child relationship, attention is given to altering perceptions and expectations, to experience of and sharing of affect, and to the development of new behaviors and practices. Long- and short-term treatment goals are set for each mother-child unit. There are therapist-educators for the children and educators for the mothers. Examples of the treatment process are provided. (DB)

The Cornerstone Project is an application of child psychoanalytic techniques in synergy with therapeutic nursery education. The Cornerstone School and the method associated with it provide treatment for children ages three to six years within a nursery classroom group setting. A therapist works six or more hours per week in the classroom, during which time he is working with all the children in the group--five to seven children. Two early childhood educators are in charge of the classroom educational activities, which proceed throughout the sessions. Teachers meet with the therapist almost daily to share observations and communications from parents, as well as to hear the material gathered during treatment that may not have been overheard in the class session. Parents are interviewed by the head teacher each week, and the therapist meets individually with parents once a month. A majority of the children have existing emotional disturbances, but patients who come for preventive reasons are accepted and given priority. In the classroom setting, there is considerable rapid emotional growth, tendency to progress from infantile and pathological patterns of psychological function, and spontaneous expressivity. Examples are given of moments in the Cornerstone classroom, which show the method in use with a variety of children. Following this, details of the treatment of a single child are given. A set of criteria used for codifying aspects of the treatment process are appended. (DB)

This 1,131-item bibliography focuses upon research which centered on or included children 12 years of age and younger, who were not substantially below average in intelligence or grossly handicapped neurologically, and who had problems commonly considered appropriate for treatment in child guidance and out-patient psychiatric clinics. The studies were published before January 1971 in English. The 12 sections of the bibliography are: Normative and Epidemiological Studies; Description and Classification; Familial and Parental Variables; Child (Client) Variables; Validity and Reliability of Anamnestic Data; The Clinic; Psychological Testing and Test Data; Treatment; Therapist Variables; Follow-up and Treatment Outcome Studies; Investigating Child Therapy; and Outside the Clinic. An author index is provided. (DB)

"Teaching Your Child" was a televised parent training program designed to reach families in low income areas around Minneapolis, Minnesota. This booklet presents the television script that was used in the program. The script was designed to coordinate with two other booklets, EM 010 828 and EM 010 826. (MC)

"Dos and Don'ts" is a supplementary booklet to the televised parent training program, "Teaching Your Child." The program was designed to reach parents in low income areas around Minneapolis, Minnesota. This particular booklet was intended to provide guidance on child rearing by presenting specific concepts in an easy to read format. Some of the concepts presented were exemplified by these guiding comments: "Tell your child what you like;""Starting something your child can do;""Let your child do it." Two other booklets, EM 010 827 and EM 010 826, are an integral part of the program. (MC)

"Teaching Your Child" was a televised parent training program conducted in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The program was designed to reach parents in low income areas and was intended to assist families with young children by presenting practical applications of basic psychological theory. This booklet was the main workbook for the entire program. It presented the concepts of positive reinforcement, aversive control, the use of punishment, and task behavior in everyday language. The workbook was programed and had cartoon characters supporting the textual examples. Two other booklets, EM 010 828 and EM 010 827, are an integral part of the program. (MC)

This investigation consisted of two studies. In Experiment I, three methods of dealing with the identified emotionally disturbed child were compared, simultaneously testing the hypothesis that community personnel can be taught to work effectively with these children. Under the three treatments, the identified child was either: (1) removed from his classroom and bussed to a special site, (2) retained in the regular classroom but taken into a special room each day to spend 20-30 minutes with a trained therapist, and (3) retained in the classroom, but with the constant support of a paraprofessional aide. In Treatment 1, these referrals had been made without consulting the research staff. For Treatment 2 and Treatment 3, stratified random assignment was made to either treatment from a large number of children identified and observed by the psychologist and the therapists. There were a total of 68 children in the combined treatment and control groups. Experiment II compared the preschool population of two clinic schools using a similar psychodynamic approach. One aspect of the investigation was designed to determine whether there were any basic differences in the type of emotional problems which characterized children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. In Experiment I, the success attained showed that community personnel can help slightly disturbed children. Although the second Experiment was never fully implemented, there seems to be sufficient basic to conclude that the problem behaviors of young children are very similar, regardless of backgrounds. (Author/CK)

The Center for Studies of Child and Family Mental Health has made an assessment of national programs during the last decade, and found that the Nation took the course of child-centered intervention programs for mental health. There were many startling and promising programs developed during that time such as Head Start. However, many of the measured rapid gains were quickly lost as programs were phased out or studies were completed. A close evaluation and assessment revealed that those programs having parental involvement sustained the child's measured gains and often improved upon them; thus, family-centered preventive mental health programs are to be the major focus for the 1970's. Society can begin to help both the child and the family by strengthening the family through reform of welfare legislation, instituting procedures to encourage low income men and women to remain with families, establishing a guaranteed income, and providing family services and education. The family's eco-system can be studied and supportive forces such as the extended family, churches, social networks, and schools in the environment can be pinpointed and integrated in treatment plans. The challenge to families and those who care about families then is to increase the incidence of success and diminish the frequency of failure. A new "Galilean" approach to research must be taken in the 1970's. (Author/JM)

The paper relates the development of childhood behavior problems to a developmental theory of the acquisition of psycho-social skills in children. The influence of Eric Erikson (1950) on the ideas expressed is acknowledged. It is stated that each of the major types of behavior problems (withdrawal, impulsivity, dependence) results from a major disruption at a specific point in a child's psycho-social development, and that to understand the meaning of the behavior problems evidenced, it must be determined where the process of psycho-social development has broken down. Described in detail are the following three stages of development: the development of basic trust (birth to 18 months of age), the process of socialization (18 months to 4 years of age), and the development of independent (4 to 10 years of age). (KW)

The STAR System is a developmental guidance approach to be used with elementary school children in the 5th or 6th grades. Two basic purposes underlie STAR: to increase learning potential and to enhance personal growth and development. STAR refers to 4 basic skills: sensory, thinking, adapting, and revising. Major components of the 4 skills are: (1) Sensing--observation and listening; (2) Thinking--goal setting, planning, weighing and choosing; (3) Adapting--try out, examination and judgment; and (4) Revising--readapting and comparing. Elements related to the use of STAR which are now under study include: group size, co-leadership, age level, materials and methods to be used and number of sessions required. (Author)

Three experimental programs were designed to examine whether the present content of teacher education affects the behavior of teachers in the classroom. The first study, "An Experimental Study of Professional Education for Secondary Teachers," conducted between 1965 and 1967, examined the proposition that valid content in teacher education could best be achieved by providing selected laboratory experience and content designed to produce functional behavior. The data obtained from independent observers, student teaching grades, and the Common Examinations section of the National Teacher Examination indicated that the experimental group showed more desirable and less traditional behavior than the control group. The second study, "Teaching Experience as a Modifier of Teaching Behavior," was primarily a follow-up study of the first project and was completed in 1969. It examined the changes in teaching behavior exhibited during student teaching and during the last 3 weeks of the first year of teaching. Results showed that certain teaching behaviors are significantly modified by experience. The third study, "The Integration of Psychoanalytic Child Psychology with Elementary Teacher Education," receives only limited treatment because the final report has not yet been written, and no extensive or specific conclusions can be made from the data presented. (MBM)

Because young children disregard writing on the spine of a book, researchers chose to run a test on color preferences in books. In a library situation young children see most books from a spine-out angle; thus when allowed to select a book by themselves, the first characteristics noticed are size and color. This study is based on the hypothesis that children transfer their preference for a favorite color to book color preference, if the quality of color is emphasized. Children also relate colors to moods. The two colors that were preferred by at least half of the 41 children tested were red and purple. With all the color choices totalled, the preference order was purple, blue, red, orange, brown, green, black, and yellow. The findings indicate that sex does make a difference in determining color preference. There was not enough consistency between favorite color and book color preference to justify a strong connection between the two. (Author/MM)

This pamphlet first describes the various ways in which discipline can be defined. Two models for dealing with classroom discipline are then presented. The first model--psychoanalytic--emphasizes the importance of understanding in dealing with discipline problems. In contrast, the second model--behavior modification--focuses on the various techniques; e.g., reinforcement and modeling; as procedures for classroom management. The ideas presented in this pamphlet are based both on scholarly opinion and on empirical investigation. (Author/JF)

Recognizing the need for trained teachers to enter the classroom with confidence and professional capacity, Walla Walla College introduced a Child Psychology Experience program. Personnel from several departments contribute to this program. In connection with the child psychology courses, the project features a laboratory/demonstration center where a controlled environment helps teacher trainees become aware of emotion-laden issues, stemming from their own backgrounds, that are relevant in meeting future issues with children under their direction. The program emphasizes effective ways to resolve residual feelings that arise when the trainee interacts with children. It is designed to improve the student teacher's ability to cope successfully with similar situations upon entering the teaching profession. (Author)

Helping a child attain his full psychological potential consists of providing him with opportunities to learn in both natural and instructional settings. Learning is defined in the psychological literature either as a hypothetical mental ability or as a relationship between repeated stimulation and changes in performance. Both definitions are rejected. There are two implications of this analysis for children with problems in self-care, language, school subjects, and social behavior. First, it is more fruitful to refer to these children as children with specific problems than with learning disorders. Second, it suggests that findings from the experimental literature can readily be applied to helping the teacher help the child. (CK)

The study demonstrates: (1) the occurrence of verbal mediation with its facilitory effect, and (2) the interfering effect of verbal satiation on mediational processes in a three-state chaining paradigm. 40 preschool children were randomly assigned to either a control (no satiation) or an experimental (satiation) group. The subjects in the control group learned three lists of three stimulus response pairs. The stimuli consisted of eight cards, five of which were black outlined drawings of either a car, boat, tree, dog or cat, and three had either blue, yellow, or red squares. Two of the pairs were mediated, the third was non-mediated. The experimental group learned the first two lists, then prior to learning the third list, they repeated the B term continually for 30 seconds. A two by three analysis of variation performed on the number of errors to criterion on list three, revealed a significant interaction of the between groups factor (experimental or control) and the within stimulus factor. No other terms reached significance. (author/MC)

White children in our White-dominant society come early to feel that their skin color is the accepted one. If children are to have attitudes and behavior different from the general culture, they will have to be reared in a subculture of equality at home. Children should see their parents acting towards Blacks as they see them acting towards Whites. A basic step is involvement of White parents in organizations dedicated to building equality of opportunity in our society, such as employment, education, housing, etc. thereby moving society away from racism. Administrators and teachers should see that textbooks and teaching materials reflect the reality of a multi-group world. The White-ghetto outlook should be eliminated and children aided in breaking out of the white cacoon and into the world of real people. (LS)

In studies of preschool children, four clusters of symptoms seem most useful in characterizing those children who manifest autism: (1) failure to establish human relatedness and meaningful social attachments; (2) impairment of motivation to become competent; (3) disturbances of perceptual integration; and (4) impairment of the development of cognitive functions. One of the most important impairments of autistic children is perceptual inconstancy (irregularity in the processing of sensory data by the various receptor systems). The likelihood of physiological and biochemical changes under autistic conditions of sensory deprivation require that perceptual patterns be promoted in the child as early as possible. A program of treatment for the autistic child should include parent participation and parent education, with the goal of reducing distortions in the parent-child relationship. Otherwise, treatment of the preschool autistic child should be concerned with establishing perceptual organization and cortical control over his sensory experiences. Further research is needed on the relationship between parental attitudes or child rearing practices and the existence of an autistic child. (WD)

Conventional methods are inadequate for teaching deaf people, especially at college level. In order to determine whether television would be more effective, several factors needed to be investigated. Priority was given to the design of the instructional program. A multisensory method (the simultaneous method) was adopted. Tests showed that the program should have a determined pace rather than one that was individual. Sixteen-millimeter films were used, because video tape recorders are not standerized. Special standards were evolved for selecting the television instructor and interpreter. Tests were made to determine what kind of visual and tape formats to use. Regular films proved more effective in teaching than slow-motion films. The finished product, a 16mm television film on child psychology was found to be useful for instructing deaf people, although several modifications were suggested. There are recommendations for future research, and the research methods are fully documented and illustrated. (GO)

The purpose of this epidemiological study of psychopathological disorders was to obtain prevalence data on 55 behavior symptoms as they occur in kindergarteners and first and second graders. The behavior symptoms are commonly found in child guidance clinic populations. The population rated in this study was the kindergarten and first and second graders in the Urbana School system, which included 926 boys and 827 girls. The children were rated by their teachers with the use of the Quay Peterson problem checklist. The universality of the population and the data is limited because Urbana is a university town and the per capita income, education level, and youth of the town is higher than usual. Analysis of the data indicated that: (1) prevalence of many of the psychopathological symptoms is quite high, (2) boys have higher rates of acting out or disruptive symptoms, while girls have slight excess of neurotic type symptoms, (3) there is a tendency for many symptoms to decrease at age 5 with a slight increase again at 8 years, (4) total number of symptoms per child is significantly higher in boys than in girls, and (5) there is little doubt that not only do boys have more symptoms than girls, but female teachers consider boys more trouble than girls. (MH)

This paper reported a pilot study on issues relevant to the social development of the 2-year-old child and discussed the results within the framework of the evolutionary-control-systems theory proposed by Bowlby (1958, 1969) and Ainsworth (1967, 1969). The issues examined were (1) attachment and (2) reciprocity, or the ability of the child-mother unit to work together under a single goal-hierarchy. Hypotheses were proposed that dealt with (a) the stability of attachment, (b) maternal variables which would serve as the optimal setting for the further expression of attachment behaviors, (c) the nature of the child's ability to carry on transactions with his mother which could be labelled reciprocal, (d) maternal variables which would serve as the optimal setting for this development, and (e) the relative nature of attachment and reciprocity. Subjects were three boys and three girls from white, middle class homes. Data were collected by means of naturalistic observations in the home, supplemented by two standardized situations. Infant and maternal rating scales were used for analysis. Study findings were discussed in terms of Bowlby's theories and suggest that parents should provide the child with stable and workable behavior models on his level of ability. (NH)

Concerning the issues of emotional development, general agreement can only be reached on the definition of "emotional" behavior. Behavior is emotional when it varies from an individual's behavioral baseline by the addition of three components: (1) an action component, (2) an arousal component, and (3) a subjective "feeling" component. In all areas of infantile emotion researchers have attempted to delineate such basic groundwork as "primitive, unlearned emotions," but subsequent study has indicated that their conclusions are more the result of situational and subjective factors than of measurable, objective data. Infant emotions are divided into negative and positive categories in this paper. Discussion of specific emotions includes fear of strangers and maternal attachment, other fears and anxiety. A broad developmental outline of responses to fear-inducing stimuli is given. Other negative emotions, such as anger, depression, and shame are discussed. The paper also outlines some of the work that has been done with positive emotions and concludes with comments on the functional significance of emotions in early development. (MH)

This paper discusses tradition and innovation in the training of clinical child psychologists. Since prevention is receiving increasing emphasis, psychologists need thorough training in the developmental psychology of both infancy and early childhood. Secondly, the training of paraprofessionals is of great current interest, and perhaps graduate students could be utilized effectively in this role. Thirdly, with the increased use of consultants comes the concern that consultants will be inadequately trained in the area about which they are consulting, and over trained in the art of consulting. Fourthly, research and its place needs a reorientation. Child psychology should stop emphasizing the application of knowledge at the expense of generating knowledge, and an attitude of scientific skepticism should be developed. Lastly, there seems to be a growing impatience among students to deal with the "real problems" of the world. The didactic work seems tedious, the theorizing irrelevant, and the learning of techniques intolerable. While there is merit to some of these points, some of these aspects of training are necessary for professional competency. (Author/KJ)

The principles of the Montessori theory of inner discipline are discussed and evaluated through examination of the writings of and about Maria Montessori. The principles are also discussed in relation to available empirical and descriptive research concerning discipline. The principles of inner discipline may be summarized as follows: The child is a man deserving of respect. He has an inner power which forces his expansion, and his will leads him to develop his abilities. The teacher acts as a loving observer of the child, who does not impart what is hers but rather develops that which is within the child. The teacher prepares the environment in which concentration can be begun and carried out, and in which obedience can be cultivated through the gentle training of the will. Once the child has begun to concentrate, the teacher does not interrupt him. Discipline is an on-going process dependent on personal freedom. It is brought about through an inner force developed in the child by spontaneous interest in and concentration on an external object (work). The child thus learns to move about actively and purposefully rather than wildly or apathetically. He finds his satisfaction in the need to produce and perfect his own work; this is his inherent and only reward, a reward which eliminates the need for punishment. (Author/NH)

Delivery of health care services is under close national scrutiny -- and rightly so! This report examines one facet of those traditional services, inpatient specialty consultation, in the form of 100 consecutive initial requests for child psychiatry consultative assistance in the clinical setting of a large children's hospital. Analysis of the data in the usual categories (age, sex, race, fee, service, and diagnosis) would strongly suggest that the consultative process is highly complex and only partially, at best, responsive to the needs of patients. Clusters of other significant variables which alter the process include attitudes of the patient and his family, the consultant, the consulee and other staff members, hospital institutional practices, and community and social influences. It would perhaps be more colorful to conclude that inpatient psychiatric consultation for children constitutes a symptom of the national non-system of health care delivery. Accuracy would require rather the conclusion that there is after all a kind of system, but that it is largely hidden, inefficient and too often hypocritical. (Author)