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Medical Student Curriculum Guide
Knowledge—Behavior

Rationale

Attention to the non-medical concerns of infants, children, and adolescents and their families enhances total patient care by providing preventive service and anticipatory guidance especially in the areas of normative or expected behaviors, stress and coping, child rearing issues, school-related expectations and problems, and the effects of illness on behavior. Such an approach will increase self-confidence in patients and their families, resulting in less anxiety and fewer problems. Knowledge of age-appropriate behavior also allows the physician to recognize significantly deviant behaviors and facilitates earlier intervention.

Learning Objectives

  1. Identify behavioral and psychosocial problems using the medical history and physical examination.

  2. Discuss the typical presentation of common behavioral problems at various developmental levels and ages (e.g. infant: sleep problems; toddler/preschool: temper tantrums, toilet training, eating problems; elementary school age: enuresis, attention deficit disorder; middle school/high school: conduct disorders, eating disorders, risk taking behaviors).

  3. Recognize that somatic complaints may represent psychosocial problems (e.g. recurrent abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, and neurological complaints).

  4. Recognize the types of situations where pathology in the family contributes to childhood behavior problems, e.g. alcoholism, domestic violence, depression.

Competencies

  1. Take a complete and relevant history and perform a pertinent physical examination on a patient who presents with a behavioral
    problem.

  2. Elicit age appropriate behavioral concerns during the health
    supervision visit.

  3. Distinguish between age-appropriate "normative" behavior and
    serious psychiatric illness.


Copyright 2003
Medical College of Georgia
All rights reserved.

School of Medicine | Medical College of Georgia

Please email comments, suggestions or questions to:
Kenda Rindt, krindt@mail.mcg.edu.
May 28, 2003