Abstract:

Purpose: In the study, the reasons for the directing of children between 0 and 6 years of age to the Child Development Unit, brought to the Social Pediatric Clinic with various approaches, were assessed and the practices carried out in the unit were studied. It is also intended to reveal the importance of the services they need in their children’s development processes. Method: This work is planned retrospective. The data was obtained by examining the files of children sent to the Child Development Unit from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2019 from the Social Pediatric Clinic. The study included 1624 children between 0 and 6 years of age. 51.8% of the children involved in the study are girls (n=841) and 48.2% (n=783) men. 38.9% of children (n=632) were directed to the Child Development Unit due to eating problems and 15.1% (n=245) to toilet education. When evaluation results were studied according to developing areas, 17.9 percent (n=276) had eating problems, 9.9 percent (n=161) had sleep problems, and 6.6 percent (n=107) had retardation in language development. 81.3% of the families (n=1320) live as a core family and 18.7% (n=304) live as a large family. Only 39.3 percent of children (n=639) have a book that is appropriate for their developmental period. Result: Parents have difficulties in evaluating their children’s development and determining their attitudes and behaviors to their children. Therefore, in order to be able to intervene early in this period, which is very important in the development of the child, the needs of support of the families should be carefully evaluated by health professionals. This process also draws attention to working in cooperation in the health system.

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