This is the first article in a series describing the essentials of the pediatric neurologic examination. The series will address the neurologic examination at different developmental stages from the neonate to the teenage years. The goals of the article are to 1) describe the newborn examination and 2) briefly describe the most common neurologic problems seen in the newborn population. One of t...

The purpose of neurologic examination of a child is to assess development and integrity of the nervous system and to determine location and cause of suspected dysfunction. Achieving these goals is often complicated by three impediments: (1) the patient’s age and willingness to cooperate, (2) the complexity of the complete neurologic examination, and (3) the fluctuating nature of neurologic func...