Reflections on an emerging academic discipline: the prolonged gestation of developmental and behavioral pediatrics

Expertise in child development and behavior has been acknowledged as a critical prerequisite for the practice of general pediatrics since the early part of the 20th century. Recently, as the knowledge base has expanded, the concept of developmental and behavioral pediatrics as a specialized academic discipline has generated growing interest. The extent to which this emerging field achieves full recognition as a respected pediatric subspecialty will be determined by its response to three critical challenges: the process of academic acculturation, the imperative of creative collaboration and intellectual cross-fertilization, and the requirements of scientific credibility.