| Abstract: | Upon general practitioners and pediatricians falls the responsibility of recognizing and treating most emotional problems in young children. This may be best carried out by the anticipation of expected problems, and the advance guidance or counseling of parents. That such problems are of high incidence was indicated in experience at a pediatric clinic where approximately 40 per cent of 7,000 children observed had psychosomatic symptoms.In order to utilize effectively the limited time available in office practice for Well Child care, a physician must have at hand certain basic information on personality development. Many of the normal behavior patterns in children which frequently are misinterpreted as “behavior problems” by parents are presented herein in chart form, divided into critical age periods, to help physicians quickly recognize what is normal and what abnormal in various periods of maximal crisis. Most of the problems of conflict within a child and of conflict between parents and child, it is felt, could be and should be handled at the pediatric level. Some seriously disturbed children need to be referred for psychiatric care. When this is necessary, skillful preparation of the parent and the child by the family physician for referral is most important to successful psychotherapy. |
