Pediatric-based assessment: children with school problems.

Twenty-one children with school problems underwent pediatric assessment within a university hospital primary care clinic. Assessment included history-taking facilitated by parent and teacher questionnaires, physical examinations, vision and hearing screening and neurodevelopmental examination. For 11 of the children, psychoeducational assessment was also obtained. Parent and school personnel were interviewed 2 to 6 months following assessment to determine implementation rates for recommendations. Overall, 66% of parent recommendations were implemented, including 72% of medical, 58% of mental health and 64% of educational recommendations. Seventy-two percent of school recommendations were implemented. Interdisciplinary evaluation as compared to pediatric-based assessment alone resulted in a greater number of recommendations generated (p less than .05) and a higher percentage of school recommendations implemented (p less than .01). Implementation rates for school recommendations were greater for young children (p less than .01). This study supports the usefulness of pediatric-based assessments for school problems and documents the advantages of an interdisciplinary approach to such children.