Committed to Children at Risk and with Developmental Disorders, their Families and their Communities
Who are we?
We are an academically-based interdisciplinary professional team with regional and national leadership in developmental and behavioral health care for children. We provide holistic clinical service to children and families. We provide innovative education and training for a wide range of students and trainees. We have established strong collaborative partnerships with community agencies and services within the region and in the state. We conduct clinical and health services research that translates basic findings into effective clinical practice and policy.
What are our core values?
We seek to provide family-centered and compassionate care, assisting children and families to reach their potential and embracing all individuals as valuable members of the human community. We respect the cultural roots of children and families in all interactions. In clinical care as well as in community service, we build collaborative partnerships in which all parties have a voice in decision-making. In clinical service, we use a biopsychosocial model that tries to understand biological as well as social, economic, and political forces on the development of children and the functioning of families. We emphasize a child’s functional abilities over categorical diagnoses.
What our roots?
Developmental medicine at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital traces its roots to the follow-up of the high-risk infant. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has been a member of the National Institutes of Child Health and Development (NICHD) Neonatal Research Network since the 1990s. This membership required close attention to neurodevelopmental outcomes as a primary approach to the evaluation of medical interventions for high risk infants. High risk infant follow-up remains a central clinical and research activity in this division.
In 1999 the American Board of Medical Specialties approved subspecialty status for Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP). Residency training in DBP became a requirement within the general pediatric residency. The clinical programs in Neonatal and Developmental Medicine continued to receive requests for evaluation of children with developmental and behavioral problems who were not high risk infants. The need for a defined program became increasingly apparent. In 2006, when Heidi M Feldman MD PhD joined the faculty, a formal section within the division was formed.
