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 (ASD)
- 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
- antidepressants
- antipsychotics
- anxiolytics
- mood stabilisers
- other common psychotropic medications used in children and young people
- sleep medications
- 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 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori
- 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 trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori
- Interpersonal, personal, and structural racism
- Management:
- alternative medications and methods of 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 trauma-infomed care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori
- 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 determinants for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori
- Values, beliefs, and traditions related to country, family, identity, and spirituality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori, and the relation to health and wellbeing
