Pediatric & Combined specialty
Child Neurology: Salary, Residency & Career Guide
Neurologic care for infants, children and adolescents, including epilepsy, development and neurogenetic disease.
Typical Training
3+2 years
Two years of pediatrics plus three years of child neurology.
Attending Compensation
$309,593
Average Total Compensation
Employment outlook
Not isolated
Projected Job Growth
Relative Competitiveness Index
37 / 100
Lower
Start in Medical School
M1 to M4 Preparation
Practical experience, projects and rotation planning.
See the Medical School RoadmapAttending Compensation and State Wages
U.S. Attending Compensation
$309,593
Average Total Compensation
BLS does not publish a separately matched state wage series for this specialty.
Resident Pay by Institution
Two years of pediatrics plus three years of child neurology..
2026–27 salaries, five published training-institution examples.
Selected institution
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
$77,049/ year
Pay varies by institution and postgraduate year.
Schedules and Work Setting
Schedule and Call
A pediatric epilepsy week may involve inpatient EEG review and urgent seizure consults; a developmental neurology clinic involves longer visits and continuity with caregivers. Call intensity depends on the pediatric hospital service.
Practice Settings
Children’s hospitals, epilepsy units, pediatric neurology clinics and inpatient consultation services.
Procedures and Clinical Work
- Developmental neurologic examination
- Pediatric seizure assessment
- EEG interpretation with appropriate training
- Neuromuscular and neurogenetic evaluation
Fellowship Training
Fellowship Expectation Index
3 / 5
Fellowship Options
Common Fellowship Duration: 1–2 year(s) beyond residency. Pediatric epilepsy and neurophysiology are common additional tracks.
Child neurology residency prepares physicians for general pediatric neurology. Epilepsy, neurophysiology and neurodevelopment careers may involve further specialty training.
Direct Practice
General child neurology practice including outpatient neurology and inpatient consultation.
Specialized Practice
Pediatric epilepsy monitoring and specialized neurophysiology or intensive care often favor fellowship expertise.
Choosing a Path
Observe epilepsy and developmental neurology before deciding whether subspecialty training changes the work you want.
Potential Fellowship Pathways
- Epilepsy
- Neurodevelopmental disabilities
- Pediatric neuromuscular medicine
- Pediatric neurocritical care
Preparing in M1 Through M4
Compare a neonatal seizure consultation with a developmental follow-up. The same neurologist may work through acute stabilization and years of family-centered planning.
Research or QI
A pediatric epilepsy follow-up project, neurogenetics case-series analysis, or developmental screening QI project links clinical questions to outcomes.
Common Mistake
Assuming child neurology is adult neurology with smaller patients. Pediatrics, family counseling and neurodevelopment make the practice distinct.
Preparation by Year
- 1Observe a pediatric epilepsy clinic and a general pediatrics visit; identify how the neurologic differential changes with age.
- 2Find a child neurologist who can explain the two-year pediatrics and three-year neurology structure.
Ask a resident this: How do residents divide time between inpatient acute seizures, outpatient neurodevelopment and pediatric ward responsibilities?
MD vs DO Match Outcomes
134 of 138 matched to their preferred specialty
24 of 29 matched to their preferred specialty
MD vs DO difference: 14.3 percentage points
Applicant Considerations
Child neurology had small 2024 preferred-specialty cohorts, especially among DO applicants. Treat the MD and DO percentages as descriptive, not stable forecasting measures.
DO Application Strategy
Look for child neurology residency programs with DO trainees and pediatric clinical exposure. Strong pediatric experience often informs better program choices than an isolated neuroscience project.
Job Outlook
N/A
Projected Employment Growth
2025 to 2035, BLS occupational projection
No distinct employment forecast is published for this exact specialty.
AI and the Specialty
Potential Workflow Changes
EEG pattern recognition, imaging triage and genomic interpretation may gain decision support while counseling and neurologic examination remain clinical tasks.
Sources & Data Notes
Reviewed . National attending compensation uses Doximity's 2026 specialty survey (2025 pay) where available, then verified specialty-specific Medscape, Marit or Salary.com estimates. Doximity, Medscape and Marit report total compensation; Salary.com models base salary. Survey averages, modeled salaries and BLS wage medians measure different populations and must not be interpreted as identical metrics. BLS May 2025 state wages are shown separately and exclude self-employed physicians. The ophthalmology BLS category excludes pediatric ophthalmologists. State figures may be missing, top-coded, or suppressed. Job outlook uses BLS 2025–2035 occupational projections; it is not a local vacancy forecast. Resident stipend examples reflect published institutional scales for 2026 to 2027, by postgraduate year, not specialty. Stanford includes housing in its reported base salary; other institutions handle allowances differently.
The Relative Competitiveness Index uses a fixed score of 25 plus 1.75 times the 2024 U.S. MD preferred-specialty unmatched percentage, rounded, then applies the same 1.225 multiplier to every specialty. Neurological Surgery is 98/100; the score is not the applicant's chance of matching. It is not a 2026 estimate or DO-specific score. The MD and DO percentages compare different unadjusted applicant cohorts who ranked that specialty first. They do not account for application strategy, program selection, scores, or geography. Ophthalmology and urology have separate specialty match processes; other pathways may lack suitable NRMP cohorts.
The 1–5 Fellowship Expectation Index is an editorial assessment of customary career paths, not a measured participation rate or requirement. For residency profiles, compact training labels put specialty years before the clinical base or preliminary year; e.g. 3+1 means three specialty years and one clinical base year, even though the clinical year comes first. Fellowship-defined careers are presented in the separate fellowship explorer. Schedules, procedural scope, preparation suggestions, and potential AI effects depend on the program and practice setting; they are qualitative descriptions, not guaranteed outcomes or forecasts of physician replacement.
For Child Neurology: Doximity 2026, Average Total Compensation, reported under “Child Neurology.” The national estimate must not be treated as a state-specific compensation figure.
Child Neurology: Editorial estimate of how fellowship shapes a career path. No observed fellowship uptake percentage is implied. Specialty-specific roadmaps describe illustrative activities, not mandatory publication, shadowing-hour, rotation, or skill requirements. Common fellowship routes: Pediatric epilepsy and neurophysiology are common additional tracks.