Failure of Israeli pediatric residency curricula to cover child development and special education issues: results of a national survey on levels of knowledge

BACKGROUND: There is an increasing prevalence of developmental difficulties among Israeli children. We aimed to assess whether pediatricians are equipped to diagnose and manage them. METHODS: We assessed the knowledge of basic child development issues and availability of services and content of special education systems among a randomly selected national sample of residents and senior Israeli pediatricians. This was done via an 70-itemed survey developed especially for this study which consisted of seven main subjects: developmental milestones, global developmental delay, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, protocol for referring to a child development institute, availability and facilities of special education systems, and medical conditions associated with developmental delay. RESULTS: A total of 310 pediatricians (an 86 % usable response rate) participated. The total median knowledge score was 32.1 % (IQR 17.8–53.5 %). Knowledge was significantly better among senior pediatricians (p < .001), those working in an office-based setting (p < .001), and those who were parents (p < .001) or had a family history of a developmental condition (p = .003). Most responders (94 %) felt that their resident training in child development was inadequate, and that they do not have sufficient access to resources and guidelines about child development and special education systems (80 %). CONCLUSIONS: The gap in knowledge on topics of child development and special education systems among Israeli pediatricians stems from inadequacies in the current curricula of pediatric residencies. The alarmingly low scores of our survey on these issues call for prompt revamping of the syllabus to include them. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13584-021-00480-y.