ABSTRACT
HISTORICALLY, clinical assessment and treatment of children have often been insensitive to developmental issues (Ferrari, 1990). In recent years, however, disciplines such as behavioral pediatrics, pediatric medicine, developmental psychology and psychopathology have emphasized the importance of developmental issues in child health and disease. Childhood is a period of rapid growth. Children are constantly changing physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally. For example, the differences between two children aged 5 and 7 can be quite incredible, in terms of their motor skills, their mental reasoning abilities, the social network that they experience, and their emotionality. Even at a particular age, however, children’s development across domains can be uneven. For example, motor skills might be quite advanced and energy and curiosity levels might be high, but children’s ability to make sound judgments could be lacking. Such a combination of ability and inability might lead children to be particularly vulnerable to health problems such as accidental injury. Indeed, injury is the primary cause of death in children in the United States (Budnick & Chaiken, 1985).
