Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship | NYU Langone Health

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Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics Education Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship

Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship

The Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship is a three-year, fully accredited program providing clinical, educational, advocacy, and research training. Offered by NYU Langone’s Division of Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics, the program’s mission is to train future leaders in developmental–behavioral healthcare and research. The program began in 1995 and was accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in 2003.

Fellows develop clinical skills for assessing and treating infants, children, adolescents, and young adults with a wide range of developmental–behavioral disorders and gain experience in academic and scholarly work, leadership, and advocacy in the fields of child development and developmental disabilities.

Fellowship Objectives

Through intensive training and scholarly opportunities, fellows gain knowledge and experience across the following areas:

  • the complex developmental processes of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults in the context of their families and communities
  • the biological, psychological, and social influences on development in the emotional, social, motor, language, and cognitive domains
  • the mechanisms for primary and secondary prevention of disorders in behavior and development
  • the ability to diagnose and treat patients with developmental–behavioral disorders throughout childhood and adolescence
  • the development of skills and attitudes necessary for fostering optimal cognitive, social, and emotional functioning of patients and their families, as well as for close collaboration with other healthcare teams that address patients’ needs

The fellowship provides a progressive educational experience in which fellows have increasing responsibilities for patient care and clinical proficiency, participate in community-based activities, and acquire skills in teaching, program development, research, and child advocacy.

Clinical Training for Fellows

Fellows in the program receive supervised clinical training and acquire significant experience with a diverse population of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. You learn about diagnostic categories to understand typical developmental–behavioral variations and become an expert in diagnosing and treating patients with developmental–behavioral disorders. In addition, you provide diagnosis-specific guidance for families, including behavioral management techniques, educational interventions, and recommended therapeutic interventions and psychopharmacotherapy.

Through these experiences, you gain an extensive knowledge of healthcare systems, community resources, support services, educational systems, the legal system and legislative processes, healthcare policy, and child advocacy organizations important for children with special needs and their families.

The fellowship fosters a team approach to caring for children with special needs by providing interdisciplinary experiences with other healthcare professionals, including general pediatricians, psychologists, neurologists, geneticists, psychiatrists, physiatrists, social workers, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists.

Fellowship training occurs at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone and its Child Study Center, NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education. In these settings, you acquire outstanding clinical skills for evaluating and treating children with conditions and problems such as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), genetic syndromes, intellectual disability, language delay, neurologic and neuromuscular diseases, school failure and learning problems, and sleep problems.

Fellows provide follow-up care and management of premature infants and other high-risk newborns, as well as rehabilitative evaluation and management for children with neuromuscular diseases and conditions such as cerebral palsy.

Additional clinical opportunities include the Frances L. Loeb Center for Child Protection and Development at Bellevue, where children are evaluated and treated for suspected physical and sexual abuse.

Fellows become proficient in administering neurodevelopment screening and assessment tools, including the following:

  • Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT-2)
  • (E=MC2) Einstein Evaluation of School-Related Skills
  • Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2)
  • Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS-2)
  • Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices
  • Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley III)
  • Preschool Language Scale (PLS-5)
  • Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT-5)
  • Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery VMI 6)
  • Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-5)
  • Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3)
  • Capute Scales
  • Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised (M-CHAT-R)
  • Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Vineland-3)
  • Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT-4)
  • Aberrant Behavior Checklist for Children
  • Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2)

Didactic and Teaching Program for Fellows

Fellows receive direct instruction, literature resources, or both, covering the core knowledge base as stipulated in the content specifications for the developmental–behavioral pediatrics subspecialty board examination. This is usually accomplished during weekly didactic sessions.

As a fellow, you are an integral part of the division’s teaching program, responsible for assisting residents and medical students in Bellevue’s developmental–behavioral clinics and also educating them in clinical settings. You participate in curriculum development and evaluation sessions and prepare and present lectures about topics in developmental pediatrics to pediatric house staff and medical students. In addition, you supervise medical students in the interactive Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) assessment, which represents a portion of the students’ overall grade in their pediatrics rotation. You also prepare educational materials and present on important developmental topics to parents and community groups.

Research and Scholarly Activity for Fellows

The fellowship provides meaningful supervised research in an area of study related to developmental–behavioral pediatrics, including experience in presenting research at regional and national meetings and in writing research-related grants and manuscripts. Research in the Division of Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics is designed to assist children from low-income communities and households before school entry, but additional research opportunities and mentors are available in the Department of Pediatrics related to media exposure, health literacy, and a host of other topics across the pediatric spectrum, such as ambulatory pediatrics, primary care, hospital pediatrics, and the subspecialties.

You are instructed in research design and statistics to facilitate your own research and to critically review the research literature. This is in the form of a six-week course including course materials and a final assessment.

After you successfully complete the fellowship, you are eligible to take the board examination in developmental–behavioral pediatrics administered by the American Board of Pediatrics.

How to Apply

The Developmental–Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship accepts one fellow per year. You must have completed an ACGME-approved pediatrics residency. The program accepts candidates with J-1 visas.

To apply, you must register at the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Applications must be submitted from July through October through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Interviews are scheduled for September and October.

For more information, contact the following people:

Hugh Bases, MD
Fellowship Director
212-562-6137
hugh.bases@nyulangone.org

Dhurata Baci, MPH
Program Manager
212-263-2693
dhurata.baci@nyulangone.org

Sonya Alexander
Fellowship Coordinator
212-263-8457
sonya.alexander@nyulangone.org