The Health Blog

To the outsider, the setting resembles an ordinary nursery school, except that there are far more “teachers” than usual, and some of the children are so young that they are still crawling.

Also on her hands and knees, one of the adults “plays” with Johnny, 2.5 years old. Dr. Eleanor Galenson, a psychiatrist, has just handed him a huge yellow-and-gray hammer made of sponge. He takes it and begins whacking away with all his might on a large red sponge block.

With each blow, Dr. Galenson says to Johnny, “Gee, you must be really angry. You really want to hit that block.” Up to now, Johnny had pounded away with his fists – on other children, including his brothers. Johnny is one of a set of triplets. The psychiatrist is teaching him two things: First, it’s OK to hit nonliving things. Second, he’s putting a name on his feelings – anger.

“A healthy angry adult might work out his anger by talking or painting an angry picture or going for a run,” says Dr. Galenson. “Sometimes, an unhealthy angry adult shoots somebody. Generally, that’s a person who never learned to put a name on his feelings.”

Dr. Galenson wants to intervene with Johnny before he grows up with twisted feelings. She wants him to experience the sort of babyhood that his mother, overwhelmed by having to care simultaneously for three infants, simply couldn’t give him.

We are visiting a therapeutic nursery for disturbed children at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Dr. Galenson and her partner, Dr. Herman Roiphe, with a squad of psychiatrists, psychologists, and volunteers, teach healthy babyhood to children between the ages of a few weeks and 3 years. These babies feel bad but cannot say how they feel.

Statistics are hard to come by, but one study suggests that three out of 100 children under the age of 3 have grave emotional problems and need help. With 9 million American children in that age group, that could mean that 270,000 babies are troubled. And such troubles could trigger personality problems that follow them into adulthood.

“These children are the ones who are most at risk for committing crimes and taking drugs, especially the boys,” warns Dr. Galenson.

Dr. Jerry Wiener, of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, says that the field of infant psychiatry has blossomed in the last 10 years.

“The most exciting change,” says Dr. Wiener, “is this: We used to view the infant as a blank slate, molded and shaped by the home environment. But now we know that babies are much more active participants than we used to think.”

For example, scientists now know for sure what parents had only suspected: each baby is born with a temperament unlike that of any other. Johnny is one of triplets, yet only he gives his mother difficulty; only he bites and hits. His two brothers are quiet and friendly.

Some children, from birth onward, do not like to be touched. Others may find high noise levels to be irritating. In fact, a baby comes into the world with a distinct personality, ready to respond in his or her individual way to parents and the environment. Each child is different.

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GENERAL HEALTH