Child Development Program

Scope of Care

The Child Development Clinics evaluate children from birth through school age for developmental, learning, social and behavioral concerns. Although many of these concerns are relatively common in this population, they do raise some concern on the part of parents and teachers, as to how best to teach and work with the individual child.

Services Provided

The Child Development Clinics are made up of several multidisciplinary teams, including an Early Childhood Assessment Team (ECAT), the Learning Disability/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder team (LD/ADHD), medication management and the Tourette clinic. The ECAT team primarily sees preschool children who may have speech and language delays, general developmental delays, behavioral issues, lack of social skills in relation to age and hyperactivity. The LD/ADHD team focuses on school age children who are having difficulties learning or coping in school. These teams work in consultation with the family, primary care provider or schools to evaluate the child, determine the child's strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations for treatment, ongoing monitoring or further diagnostic evaluations to be done in the community. Follow up assessments, developmental monitoring and medication management (for ADHD, autism and Tourette's Syndrome) are also available through the clinics.

Service Providers

The core team members include a board certified developmental pediatrician and pediatric nurse practitioner, clinical psychologist, special educator, speech and language pathologist or audiologist. Other specialists, such as social workers, occupational therapists and physical therapists are also available for consultation as needed. Teams are generally set up as determined by the child's needs.

Of note, Special Education provides academic assessments and, in conjunction with clinical psychology, is an invaluable part of the team in making the diagnosis of a learning disability. In addition, they often make very specific recommendations to aid the child in the learning process.

How to make a Referral

Referrals to the Child Development Clinics ideally come from the primary care provider, as we are very committed to the medical home concept and involvement of your child's physician in his or her care. Referrals are also welcome from other medical or mental health providers, parents, DHS workers, schools, and other community agencies. Particularly for school, learning and behavior concerns, it is very helpful to have information from the child's educational team available to us before the appointment.