ABSTRACT
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Training for Developmental Pediatricians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Transdisciplinary Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 The Spectrum of Developmental Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Cognition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Information Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Socialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
The Continuum of Developmental Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 The Diagnosis and Management of Associated Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . 144
Developmental Pediatrics Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Summary and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
The field of developmental pediatrics has undergone dramatic changes over the past quarter century. Starting in the late 1950s, pediatric residents could elect to do an additional year of training in the field of child development. By the 1960s, formal fellowship training programs were developed to address the numerous
and diverse interests of the pediatric field in the different aspects of child development. These programs often involved 1 or 2 years of fellowship training added on to 2 or 3 years of pediatric residency. By the 1990s, most of these programs had extended the length of their fellowship training to 3 years after a 3-year pediatric residency. But, until the current decade, none of these training programs offered a sub-board or subspecialty certification. In the late 1990s, the American Board of Medical Specialties approved two new sub-board certifications in the broad area of child development. These new certifications can be expected to radically alter the face of pediatric subspecialization in child development over the coming decades. A brief description of these two training programs follows, as well as an overview of the types of developmental disabilities that these subspecialty areas diagnose and manage, the components of a developmental pediatrics assessment, and a practice profile of developmental pediatricians.
