Pediatricians' perceptions of the effectiveness of early invention for at-risk and handicapped children.

To evaluate pediatricians' perceptions of the effectiveness of early intervention for handicapped and at-risk children, all board-certified pediatricians in the state of Ohio were surveyed. A detailed questionnaire was developed which included the use of brief but specific cases identifying eight different children with documented handicaps and two cases of children at developmental risk. Overall, the results indicated that pediatricians judged early intervention to produce at least a modest effect on children's general development and function. A more optimistic perspective was held for families in that involvement in early intervention was viewed as improving substantially the ability of families to cope with the problems of a handicapped or at-risk child and to provide a supportive and stimulating environment. However, perceptions of effectiveness did vary for specific disability and at-risk groups. The correspondence between perceived effectiveness and existing research findings also was discussed.

Training residents in developmental pediatrics: results from a national replication.

This investigation examined the extent to which a structured curriculum in developmental pediatrics could be applied effectively to a wide range of pediatric residency training programs. Residents drawn principally from sites not involved in the original development of a curriculum in developmental pediatrics were assigned randomly to prerotation control or postrotation experimental groups. Based on an objective case management test, residents who had participated in the rotation defined by the curriculum scored significantly higher than those who had not. Differences between experimental and control groups were similar for both the first and second evaluation years and for residents drawn from the original and new sites (total n = 161). Subjective evaluations by residents and faculty preceptors confirmed the utility of curriculum.

Teaching developmental pediatrics to pediatric residents: effectiveness of a structured curriculum.

A national Task Force on Developmental Pediatrics was convened in 1979 to produce a curriculum for pediatric residents pertaining to the detection, assessment, and management of children with atypical development. During a 2-year period, the task force developed a structured curriculum composed of specific goals, educational objectives, and matched learning activities that identified and described the basic knowledge, skills, and attitudes of developmental pediatrics to be acquired during a pediatric residency. Subsequently, the curriculum was implemented and evaluated in 11 pediatric programs with a developmental pediatrics rotation. On a seven-point subjective scale, the mean resident (n = 64) rating of the curriculum's usefulness was 6.0 and of their perceived competence in the skills of developmental pediatrics was 5.2; the mean percent of this competence attributed to the curriculum-based rotation was 56.6. On an objective case management test, residents who used the curriculum scored significantly (P less than .005) higher than those who did not. These results suggest the efficacy of structured curricula in pediatric resident education.