Developmental Assessment and Biological Functioning Of Pediatric Populations

Developmental Assessment and Biological Functioning Of Pediatric Populations

Importance of developmental assessment

Developmental assessment helps to identify infants, children, and adolescents with developmental delays, disorders, and disabilities which is paramount in the primary care setting. Identifying and addressing these challenges is instrumental so that suitable intervention can be instituted. Developmental assessment helps primary care givers to provide family centered, coordinated and comprehensive care (Hockenberry & Wilson, 2013). As such carrying out developmental assessment to infants, children and adolescents is critical to their wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of the family where it acts as an integral function of the medical home approach of providing primary care to these groups of children.

Essential Components of Developmental Assessment

The developmental screening in the pediatric primary care giving include screening the infant or the child at the designated well-child visits, using the score screening tools to identify whether there is a concern, evaluating the developmental status of the child or infant (comparing the child’s developmental relative to the expected development at his/her age), giving the feedback to the parents, and advising the parent accordingly on behavior and development. On the other hand, screening of an adolescent involve going through the past screening, if there was an identified developmental concern………………….