Pediatric practitioners' knowledge of developmental disabilities

The purpose of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes of pediatric practitioners about developmental disabilities and compare their level to the performance of pediatric residents before and after a 1-month rotation about developmental disabilities. The level of knowledge was measured using a 50-question multiple choice examination and the attitudes were measured utilizing a hypothetical question about allocation of funds, a scale which measured prognostic abilities about mental function and the Attitude Towards Disabled Persons Scale. The results showed that the practitioners' mean scores were near the resident pretest mean scores with the exception of knowledge of developmental landmarks and school behavior and learning problems. Only slight changes in the residents were seen on the attitudinal measures, and the practitioners tended to have less optimistic attitudes than other professionals. The results help document that residency training in developmental disabilities improves knowledge about the area and that practitioners without that training have not acquired it on their own.