Curriculum standards
Knowledge guides
LG14: Developmental paediatrics
Key presentations and conditions
Advanced Trainees will have a comprehensive depth of knowledge of these presentations and conditions.
Less common or more complex presentations and conditions
Advanced Trainees will understand these presentations and conditions.
Advanced Trainees will understand the resources that should be used to help manage patients with these presentations and conditions.
Epidemiology, pathophysiology, and clinical sciences
Advanced Trainees will have a comprehensive depth of knowledge of the principles of the foundational sciences.
Investigations, procedures, and clinical assessment tools
Advanced Trainees will know the scientific foundation of each investigation and procedure, including relevant anatomy and physiology. They will be able to interpret the reported results of each investigation or procedure.
Advanced Trainees will know how to explain the investigation or procedure to patients, families, and carers, and be able to explain procedural risk and obtain informed consent where applicable.
Important specific issues
Advanced Trainees will identify important specialty-specific issues and the impact of these on diagnosis and management and integrate these into care.
Presentations
- Academic and learning difficulties
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
- Aggression
- Attention and concentration difficulties
- Communication difficulties
- Defiance
- Delayed (motor) developmental milestones
- Developmental risk factors
- Emotional dysregulation
- Hearing impairment
- Hyperactivity
- Neurodiversity
- Repetitive behaviours
- School refusal
- Sensory difficulties
- Separation anxiety
- Sleep problems
- Social skills concern
- Tics and other motor stereotypies
- Vision impairment
Conditions
- Anxiety
- Attachment difficulties
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Complex neurodevelopmental disorders
- Developmental delay
- Developmental language disorder
- Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
- Gross motor delay
- Intellectual disability
- Learning disorders
- Speech and language delay
- Trauma
- Visual impairment
For each presentation and condition, Advanced Trainees will know how to:
Synthesise
- recognise the clinical presentation
- identify relevant epidemiology, pathophysiology, and clinical science
- take a relevant clinical history
- conduct an appropriate examination
- establish a differential diagnosis
- plan and arrange appropriate investigation
- consider the impact of illness and disease on patients and families, and their quality of life
Manage
- provide evidence-based management
- prescribe therapies tailored to patients’ needs and conditions
- recognise potential complications of disease and its management, and initiate preventative strategies
- involve, work within, and lead multidisciplinary teams to optimise individual patient care
Consider other factors
- identify individual and social factors and the impact of these on diagnosis and management
- Conduct disorder
- Developmental regression
- Functional disorders
- Genetic conditions impacting development
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Oppositional defiant disorder
For each presentation and condition, Advanced Trainees will know how to:
Synthesise
- recognise the clinical presentation
- identify relevant epidemiology, pathophysiology, and clinical science
- take a relevant clinical history
- conduct an appropriate examination
- establish a differential diagnosis
- plan and arrange appropriate investigation
- consider the impact of illness and disease on patients and families, and their quality of life
Manage
- provide evidence-based management
- prescribe therapies tailored to patients’ needs and conditions
- recognise potential complications of disease and its management, and initiate preventative strategies
- involve, work within, and lead multidisciplinary teams to optimise individual patient care
Consider other factors
- identify individual and social factors and the impact of these on diagnosis and management
-
Clinical pharmacology, including:
- ADHD medication
- anti-depressants
- anti-psychotics
- anxiolytics
- mood stabilisers
- sleep medications
- other common psychotropic medications used in children and young people
- Health, education, and support needs of children with developmental differences
- Importance and impact of early intervention / investment
- Physiological, psychological, and social factors influencing child development, including adverse childhood experiences and infant mental health
- Typical child behaviour, development, and growth
- Typical childhood development and variations
Clinical assessment tools
- Behavioural questionnaires, such as Conners Early Childhood Screen
- Developmental screening tools for focused assessment of development and behaviour
- Visual assessment
Investigations
- Audiology
- Blood tests:
- biochemistry
- endocrinological
- genetic investigations
- haematological
- metabolic screening tests
- nutritional and toxin screening
- Neuroimaging
- Urine metabolic screening
- Assessment and diagnosis:
- diagnostic criteria and assessment pathways
- information provided in reports by allied health professionals
- longitudinal aspects of and assessment intervals for infants, children, and young people with developmental delay / disabilities
- role of allied health in assessment of infants, children, and young people with developmental delay / disabilities
- Broad health and wellbeing considerations of the child and their context, such as:
- adverse childhood experiences and early life trauma, including antenatal exposures
- cultural, geographical, and socioeconomic barriers to health
- inequities in child health
- intergenerational trauma
- Child health and wellbeing implications and impact of colonisation, ongoing colonialism, and current and historical government policies on First Nations People
- Child health and wellbeing implications and impact of conflict / persecution / disaster fled, transit journeys, and current and historical government policies on refugee and asylum seeker children, and those with refugee-like backgrounds
- Culturally safe behaviour and attitudes by health professionals
- Education system considerations, such as:
- impact of disrupted education
- preschool and school structures
- preschool, school, and education processes for infants, children, and young people with developmental delays / disabilities
- role of preschool and school-based assessments for infants, children, and young people with developmental delays / disabilities
- school access and educational support
- Family consideration, such as:
- family violence awareness and screening
- impact of psychosocial issues on parenting behaviours
- parenting strategies for children and young people with developmental difficulties and neurodiversity
- parenting style and behaviour management resources available to parents
- range of parenting styles, considering psychosocial and cultural variations
- Health policies, resources, and services, such as:
- availability of services in regional and remote communities
- communication processes and relationships between acute care services, community centres, primary health, and private sector
- delivery of health services within individual communities
- education resources and support for families with neurobehavioral and developmental conditions
- increasing role for digital solutions, especially for bridging access gaps
- local, regional, and national disability support accessibility, policies, services and resources
- local, regional, and national public health policy and legislation affecting the health and wellbeing of infants, children, and young people
- role of government and non-government agencies in managing infants, children, and young people with developmental delays / disabilities
- role of paediatrician in community care
- role of primary health, local, and community-based services in delivery of health care for infants, children, and young people
- services and service gaps
- Health and wellbeing needs of children, families, and communities across multiple cultural domains, including:
- disability
- ethnicity
- gender
- Indigenous status
- religious or spiritual belief
- sexual orientation
- socioeconomic status
- Health status and needs of children and families from priority populations:
- asylum seekers, migrants, and refugees
- children in out-of-home care
- regional and remote communities
- Historical First Nations trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder
- Interpersonal, personal, and structural racism
- Management:
- alternative medications and methods of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) management
- awareness of behavioural modification techniques in children, adolescents, and young adults
- complications / comorbidities of ASD
- importance and role of case conferences
- medications used in the management of ASD, including atypical antidepressants and antipsychotics
- non-pharmacological and pharmacological behaviour management strategies for children and young people
- non-pharmacological and pharmacological management of ADHD and comordities
- psychoactive medications available for children and young people
- regulations for prescribing stimulant medications
- role of allied health professionals when managing infants, children, and young people with developmental delays / disabilities
- Principles of Indigenous trauma infomed care
- Principles of patient-centred care
- Principles of trauma-informed care
- Psychosocial impacts of child health, such as:
- bullying
- infant mental health
- maternal-infant dyad
- social media
- Rehabilitation considerations, such as:
- assessment of degree of impairment, disability, and activity limitation or participation restriction, and potential for rehabilitation
- assessment of patients following brain injury, including assessment of the severity of injury and the need for ongoing therapy and follow-up
- biopsychosocial model and its application to patient care
- indications for referral to:
- child life therapy
- occupational therapy
- orthotics
- physiotherapy
- psychology
- speech therapy
- long-term follow-up of infants born low birth weight, premature, or with serious medical conditions
- pain and irritability assessment in children with severe disability who are nonverbal
- sequelae following brain injury, and appreciation of executive dysfunction and its impact on learning
- use and purpose of early screening for cerebral palsy, including general movements assessment and Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination, and referral pathways for children identified as at risk
- Social determinants of health, including Indigenous determinants
- Values, beliefs, and traditions related to country, family, identity, and spirituality of First Nations People, and the relation to health and wellbeing