ABSTRACT
Most children develop behaviour problems at some time or other. A common behavioural malady in childhood is an apparent inability to sit still and concentrate on things. This is seldom so problematical that the child’s normal activities in home and school are disturbed, though severe cases can have a disruptive effect. In this case, we might describe the child as hyperactive. In contrast to this relatively common behavioural disorder, severe and persistent disturbances of mood and thought are seen in only 1 in 1,000 children on average (Achenbach, 1982). What we are concerned with in this chapter is one particularly debilitating mental illness which forms some of these serious cases: schizophrenia.
