[en] Based upon the ALARA principle (As Low As Reasonably Achievable), the pediatric diagnostic radiology deserves special attention by the importance in maintaining the doses at the lowest possible levels, due to the higher life expectancy of these age groups, that increases the probabilities of occurring the deleterious effects due to radiation exposures. An effective quality control program produces a large potential of dose reduction in diagnostic radiology, by the establishment of radiographic techniques to the production of abetter radiographic image, with less radiation doses to the patient. The principal aim of the present work, was the adaptation of an homogeneous phantom equivalent to a standard adult patient, to the determination and optimization of radiographic techniques in pediatric examinations. The phantom enables the simulation of the chest, skull or pelvis and the extremities. After the obtention of several techniques for each examination evaluated, the utilization of a phantom with common structures in radiology, enabled the standardization of the technique to provide a better contrast between different structures, for each examination. At another stage of this work, the sensitometric characteristics of a rare-earth screen-film system were evaluated and compared to those of a conventional calcium tungstate system. The results indicated that the rare-earth systems offer significant dose reduction and images of good quality. (author)