PNCB-PMHS Exam Information and Outline
Pediatric Primary Care Mental Health Specialist (PMHS)
PNCB-PMHS Exam Syllabus & Study Guide
Before you start practicing with our exam simulator, it is essential to understand the official PNCB-PMHS exam objectives. This course outline serves as your roadmap, breaking down exactly which technical domains and skills will be tested. By reviewing the syllabus, you can identify your strengths and focus your study time on the areas where you need the most improvement.
The information below reflects the latest 2026 course contents as defined by PNCB. We provide this detailed breakdown to help you align your preparation with the actual exam format, ensuring there are no surprises on test day. Use this outline as a checklist to track your progress as you move through our practice question banks.
Below are complete topics detail with latest syllabus and course outline, that will help you good knowledge about exam objectives and topics that you have to prepare. These contents are covered in questions and answers pool of exam.
I. Health Promotion: Developmental, Behavioral, and Mental Health
A. Health Promotion and Anticipatory Guidance
- Foster positive parenting and attachment
- Stimulate optimal developmental progression
- Provide guidance regarding the impact of individual temperament on development and behavior
- Promote behavioral, social, emotional, and academic functioning
- Educate patients and caregivers about lifestyle modification and risk avoidance or reduction
- Educate patients and caregivers about the connection between physical and social determinants of health
- Provide guidance regarding resiliency and healthy coping
B. Early Identification and Screening for DBMH Conditions
- Provide surveillance to identify children and adolescents at risk
- Use and interpret evidence-based universal screening tools
- Use and interpret evidence-based risk-related screening tools
II. Evaluation
- Obtain a comprehensive developmental, behavioral, environmental, and health history, including caregivers’perception of the concern
- Elicit a comprehensive multigenerational family history
- Consider health disparities and social determinants of health in the evaluation process
- Obtain and review information/data from previous assessments, academic evaluations, and collateral resources
- Administer evidence-based developmental, behavioral, and mental health assessment tools
- Perform a physical exam, observe interactions between patient and caregiver(s), and evaluate behavior
- Order relevant diagnostic and laboratory tests
III. Diagnostic Decision Making
- Interpret assessment and diagnostic findings
- Recognize and differentiate:
- typical developmental stages/milestones vs. developmental or behavioral disorders
- genetic influences and conditions
- the impact of psychosocial and environmental conditions/factors
- medical, behavioral, and/or psychiatric co-morbidities
- Synthesize the information/data to generate differential diagnoses, taking into consideration:
- psychiatric, neurologic, and/or behavioral manifestations of medical disorders
- typical vs. atypical presentation of psychiatric disorders
- early signs and symptoms of complex developmental, behavioral, and psychiatric disorders
- Use Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) criteria and taxonomy in diagnostic decision making
- Engage child/adolescent and caregivers in discussions regarding diagnostic impression
- Initiate referral(s) and/or consultation(s) in the diagnosis of developmental, behavioral, and mental health conditions as indicated
IV. Management
- Initial Management
- Incorporate psychoeducation in the discussion of:
- etiology of condition(s)
- diagnosis and treatment options
- indications, benefits and risks of pharmacologic agents
- indications, benefits and risks of therapies and interventions
- benefits and risks of complementary and alternative therapies
- appropriate safety and crisis management planning
- Establish treatment goals and objectives through collaborative problem solving with the child/adolescent, caregivers, and other team members
- Obtain and document informed consent and assent for treatment
- Provide counseling about evidence-based strategies and techniques (e.g. behavioral and cognitive strategies, symptom self-monitoring, coping skills, parenting techniques, environmental accommodations and adaptations)
- Prescribe evidence-based treatments for developmental, behavioral, and mental health conditions using:
- pharmacologic agents
- therapies and interventions
- Initiate referrals to specialty service providers as appropriate
- Initiate treatment while awaiting specialty services if indicated
- Direct patients and caregivers to community resources
- Collaborate with schools in the provision of care to optimize function
- Refer patients with complex disorders to appropriate provider(s)
- Consult and collaborate with multidisciplinary team regarding treatment and management
- Ongoing Management
- Provide active support, monitoring, and counseling to maximize functioning by:
- identifying environmental conditions/factors
- assessing for high risk behaviors
- enhancing family interactions
- promoting social and academic functioning
- encouraging self-monitoring and self-regulation
- decreasing the risk of complications related to medications
- enhancing adherence with treatment plan
- Evaluate treatment outcomes related to pharmacologic agents
- Evaluate treatment outcomes related to therapies and interventions
- Identify and manage new diagnoses and/or comorbidities
- Facilitate interprofessional communication, collaboration and care coordination
- Advocate for the child and family
- Support transition of services to adult care
- Conclude services appropriately
V. Professional Role
- Incorporate knowledge of diversity and culture in the provision of care
- Maintain confidentiality and privacy according to current regulations and policies
- Maintain current knowledge of the following related to developmental, behavioral, and mental health care:
- Federal and state laws
- Ethical considerations
- Practice standards and guidelines
- Quality indicators
- Promote integrated care models
- Provide and increase access to care using innovative methods of healthcare delivery (for example, telehealth, value-based care models, patient-centered care model, school-based health clinics)
- Document findings and plans of care to assure quality of care and support reimbursement
- Attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Anxiety disorders
- Autism spectrum disorders
- Communication disorders
- Depressive disorders
- Developmental delay
- Disruptive, impulse-control, and conduct disorders
- Learning disorders
- Sleep disorders
- Trauma- and stressor-related disorders (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorders, reactive attachment disorders)
- Abuse and neglect
- Bi-polar and related disorders
- Elimination disorders (encopresis and enuresis)
- Feeding and eating disorders
- Intellectual disability
- Mental and developmental disorders related to medical conditions (e.g., traumatic brain injury (TBI), concussion, obesity, diabetes)
- Motor disorders
- Seizure disorders
- Sensory processing issues
- Somatic symptoms and related disorders
- Body dysmorphic disorder
- Gender dysphoria
- Genetic disorders
- Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS)
- Neurosensory impairments
- Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders
- Other neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., cerebral palsy, spina bifida)
- Substance use and addictive disorders
- Tic disorders
- Antidepressant medications
- Diet and nutritional approaches
- Anti-anxiety medications
- Time management and limit setting
- Attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder medications Technology/electronics management
- Over-the-counter medications
- Counseling for lifestyle management
- Sleep medications
- Motivational interviewing
- Supplements (non-prescription)
- Educational support services, including counseling about accommodations
- Mood stabilizers
- Physical activity
- Antipsychotic medications
- Sleep management
- Antiepileptic medications
- Collaborative problem solving
- Mind-body approaches, including mindfulness and relaxation therapy
- Behavioral interventions
- Cognitive behavioral techniques
- Psychoeducation
- Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ, PHQ-9, PHQ-Brief, PHQ-SADS, PHQ-9- modified (A), PHQ-2)
- Vanderbilt Assessment Scales
- Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised, with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F)™
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7)
- Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ)
- Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED)
- Home environment, Education and employment, Eating, peer-related Activities, Drugs, Sexuality, Suicide/depression, and Safety from injury and violence (HEEADSSS)
- Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
- Conners Comprehensive Behavior Rating Scales (CBRS)
- CRAFFT Alcohol and Substance Screening Tool
- Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
- Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC)
- Ages & Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional (ASQ-SE)
- Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Questionnaire
- Parent Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS)