Preschool Child Development

As part of our didactic curriculum, we will be visiting several local preschools and head start programs where you will be able to observe and interact with children from diverse cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds in a variety of settings. During these visits, faculty provide supervision and instruction around normal child development, child psychopathology and developmental staging. We visit each site multiple times throughout the year in order to observe the children’s growth and development.

The vast majority of children you see will fit within the range of normal child development, but there will be several children who receive services such as speech, occupational or physical therapy for developmental delays and/or services associated with autism spectrum disorder.

Our educational arrangement with these local preschool sites is bidirectional. We learn from the systems and children we interact with in each preschool, and we in turn are often asked to provide mental-health-related educational sessions for staff and parents at these sites. Fellows are encouraged to be a part of these educational presentations. We believe that learning to form strong relationships with the community organizations that serve our patient population is an integral part of fellowship training.

You will also attend an autism diagnostic clinic, observing and evaluating at least two preschool-age children. Here, you will work collaboratively with pediatric neurologists, developmental pediatricians and other medical professionals to make assessments and treatment recommendations.

During your second year of fellowship you will also carry a minimum of one preschool case at the Children’s Outpatient Clinic.