Prenatal Exposures

Children are being diagnosed with psychopathologies at alarming rates. Not surprisingly, their behavioral and educational outcomes are increasingly compromised. The financial costs of treating childhood disabilities are spiraling out of control, and the emotional and social toll on students, families, schools, the penal system, and society as a whole is staggering.


With proper care during pregnancy, medical professionals can now help expectant mothers prevent many physical birth defects. But prevention and intervention techniques remain elusive for abnormal fetal development that manifests later in life as behavioral problems. Researchers in the field of behavioral teratology continue to search for answers – prevention and intervention techniques – that will lead to improved behavioral and education outcomes for children.

In this first compendium in the growing literature of behavioral teratology, readers will discover an easy-to-access, concise presentation that:


Synthesizes important findings that help explain why prenatal events may result in abnormal behavior and learning disabilities later in life.

Examines the role of prenatal perturbations, along with genetics and the postnatal roles of caretakers and the social environment, in light of how each may – individually or together – contribute to conditions as varied as dyslexia, schizophrenia, fetal alcohol syndrome, and autism.

Ensures that effective prevention and intervention can occur during the prenatal phases of development.

Addresses the research needs in behavioral teratology that are likely to lead to discoveries that may ensure the birth of healthier babies who develop normally across the lifespan.

Provides a brief medical glossary that details terminology specifically related to fetal development and birth.

With its multidisciplinary approach, this volume is a must-have resource for clinical child and school psychologists; educational professionals; medical practitioners; social workers and counselors as well as researchers and graduate students in these areas. In addition, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and other medical professionals – including such disciplines as epidemiology, reproductive biology, psychiatry, pediatrics, obstetrics, neonatology, among others – will find this book highly useful.

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Martin and Dombrowski's new book, Prenatal Exposures: Psychological and Educational Consequences for Children (Springer, 2008), is well documented and incisive. They collect in one volume an impressive amount of scientific evidence, and they do not stray far from this evidentiary base when drawing conclusions and identifying trends that may inform future research and current practices. Thanks to these characteristics this text is authoritative and, therefore, of particular importance for graduate training in pediatrics, child and school psychology, nursing, and preparation of other professionals who commonly have to estimate the potential impact of proven and purported teratogens. I congratulate the authors on this accomplishment and recommend highly their text for researchers and clinicians alike.

R.W. Kamphaus, Ph.D.

Dean and Distinguished Research Professor College of Education, Georgia State University