National Institutes of Mental Health Director Thomas Insel offered this interesting idea on his blog:
For pediatricians and parents, one of the most important tools is decidedly low tech. The growth chart, a simple graph of the trajectory of the normal range of height, weight, and head circumference across age, is a vital tool for detecting problems in development. Even when a child is in the normal range, identifying a change from the 80th percentile at age 6 to the 20th percentile at age 8 can indicate a problem.
Imagine if we had a similar tool for cognitive and emotional development or for the development of select brain pathways. While not exactly a growth chart, a map of the development of various brain functions could help parents and providers know when to be concerned. A new paper just published online in JAMA Psychiatry provides the first picture of what a cognitive developmental chart looks like and how it might be used for children at risk for psychosis.1
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2014/a-growth-chart-for-the-mind.shtml
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