Child psychiatry trainees starting out in their training in paediatric consultation liaison care often face a steep learning curve when acquiring and mastering the skills of interviewing toddlers and children. The different developmental phases pose significant and varying challenges as do the behavioural, emotional and cognitive difficulties of the children. The learning process can be eased by working in a good clinical team.

Now a book that aims to better prepare our trainees even before they see their patients has been produced by professors Rochelle Caplan and Brenda Bursch. The authors have drawn on their 30-year clinical experience to present an overview of communication with toddlers and young children in clinical settings. The book provides readers with a progressive understanding of developmental approach to both speaking with young children and understanding their communication, communicating with children particularly when they talk about their feelings in the context of adversity and medical illnesses, and finally understanding how distress commonly encountered in epilepsy, chronic pain and other conditions influences communication in children. The book’s final chapter is a concise summary of putting into practice good interviewing skills for specialists in training to become expert interviewers.

The book is well structured, beginning with chapter overview and ending with summary points at the end of each section, making it concise and focused. This is an excellent text for paediatric and child psychiatry residents in consultation liaison service, and child-life specialists starting out their training.