When assessing a patient on the psychiatry oral board exam – and this holds true for the adult and the child adolescent exam – who appears to have mental retardation or developmental delay, you must expect to be asked questions relevent to this topic. And yet, in my experience, many candidates are not prepared to do so. In fact, this topic makes them uncomfortable to the point that they lose their emotional equilibrium and start performing more poorly on the rest of their exam. Here are some simple tips to help you handle these cases better.

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