The New Zealand Herald ran an article on Independent Online entitled “Forget neuroses, give baby a break” about how psychologists have always suggested that a baby has to develop certain skills by a certain age, but now it's hard to tell whether this uptight approach to raising children has worked. The article states, “Somehow we've managed to turn some early warning signs into truly dire harbingers: sure indications that a child faces a future of delinquency, stupidity, impulsivity, aggression or other horrors. But a new understanding of how malleable people really are, and of the huge individual variation in development, gives the lie to that belief. Now two studies go further, casting doubt on how reliable early warning signs really are. Perhaps the most debated warning sign is attention deficit, especially since critics say that society is "medicalising" normal fidgeting. But there is one unquestionably real consequence of thinking of your child as troubled, or slow, or difficult, or uninterested in school: it can subtly shift how you treat him and what you expect of him, turning harbingers into self-fulfilling prophecies.

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