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It is the explicit purpose of this relatively short book, authored by a psychiatrist and a psychologist at Johns Hopkins, to offer professionals some practical method of managing hyperactive children. Its brevity is owed, in part, to heavy reliance on direct, concise assertions and relegation of elaborations to the "notes" sections following most chapters, in reduced print. The style is consistent with the book's purpose, which is explicitly not to "make scientific readers aware of the numerous dimensions of the hyperactive condition." Indeed, its 2½-page initial chapter on the historical background is little more than obeisance to tradition.
The second is the longest chapter in the book, called simply "Hyperactivity in Children," and contains innumerable details about the characteristics, development, prevalence, and prognosis of "hyperactivity." "For the much abused concept of hyperactivity," the authors write, "defining this behavioral pattern becomes testy and complicated." Their attempt to do so offers the