One-third of all scheduled pediatric visits are for well child care. The American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested that anticipatory guidance, which focuses on health maintenance, accident prevention, nutrition, and normal child development, should be a major part of well child visits. Training in well child counseling will only be accepted in residencies and put into practice when a cost efficient mode of teaching and delivery have been identified. As an initial step in creating a well child care teaching manual for a pediatric residency program, a needs assessment was conducted to determine pediatric residents' attitudes, knowledge, and perceived need for information about anticipatory guidance, and parents' perceived problems in health maintenance, safety, and psychosocial issues, and their perceived need for anticipatory care information. The results of the assessment revealed that pediatric residents (N=52) considered provision of anticipatory guidance an important area; that they lacked sufficient knowledge of child development, counseling concerning common behavior problems, nutrition, and safety; and that they did not feel confident counseling parents about normal developmental issues, discipline, and common behavior problems. Parents indicated that they had numerous concerns about common behavior problems and a desire to talk to their pediatrician about these problems. Based on these findings, a well child care manual has been written and a 2-year luation is in progress. Ten slides shown during the presentation are appended. (NB)