As a physician who went to medical school from 1983-1987, and did a 3-year pediatric residency from 1987-1990, and a 1-year fellowship in the pediatric outpatient department from 1990-1991, I learned a very different set of pediatric developmental milestones. What has happened? Did normal childhood development change? Were we wrong decades ago when we described normal childhood development, and only now have a handle on what normal pediatric development looks like? I don’t think so.
As it appears to me that because we have so many more children with developmental delays (1 in 5 children today has some form of neurodevelopmental delay ), we have had to lower the bar on what is acceptable achievement of pediatric milestones just so it looks like fewer children are delayed.
Our children deserve better. In this lecture, I will review the real, normal childhood development before the bar was lowered, and compare it to what is generally accepted as normal in today’s pediatric world. I will explain how childhood brain development occurs, and what has been happening over the last four decades to compromise our children’s brain development.
Objectives
- Attendees will be able to learn the real, normal pediatric developmental milestones before the bar was lowered.
- Attendees will be able to compare normal pediatric developmental milestones with what we have accepted as normal pediatric development today.
- Attendees will hear about how children’s brains develop, and what has compromised normal children’s brain development throughout the years.
- Attendees will hopefully use the real, normal pediatric developmental milestones to assess a child and not rely on current guidelines, so they can catch any delays early enough, before the children are lost.
Bio - Dr Larry Palevsky, MD, FMAPS
Larry Palevsky is a New York State licensed pediatrician, who utilizes a holistic approach to children’s wellness and illness. Dr. Palevsky received his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine in 1987, completed a three-year pediatric residency at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in 1990, and served as a pediatric fellow in the ambulatory care out-patient department at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, from 1990-1991. Since 1991, his clinical experience includes working in pediatric emergency and intensive care medicine, in-patient, and out-patient pediatric medicine, neonatal intensive care medicine, newborn and delivery room medicine, and conventional, holistic and integrative pediatric private practice. Dr. Palevsky is a diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, and Past–President of the American Holistic Medical Association. He received his pediatric board certification in 1990, and passed his pediatric board recertification exams in 1997, 2004, and 2011.
In his current pediatric practice, Dr. Palevsky offers well-child examinations, consultations and educational programs to families and practitioners in the areas of preventive and holistic health; childhood development; lifestyle changes; nutrition for adults, infants and children; safe, alternative treatments for common and difficult to treat acute and chronic pediatric and adult conditions; mindful parenting; and rethinking the medical paradigm.
