developmental pediatrician

[HIU8]

What does it mean when your child goes to a developmental ped? What are they looking for/testing for? DNiece will be going for her first visit to one in June (on the advice of her ped and a child psychologist I believe). I was told that DS (who has SPD) did not need to go and see one at this point, so I never really looked further into it.

[crl]

Developmental peds deal with a variety of issues related to childhood development. We went to get autism diagnosed or ruled-out and came away, eventally, with autism ruled-out and anxiety disorder and ADHD diagnosed.

Catherine

[Gena]

Children can be seen by a developmental pediatrician for a variety of issues. DS is seen by a dev ped at the local children's hospital for autism. Other things the doctors in that clinic see kids for include:

Developmental delays, including language, cognitive, motor or social delays
Genetic disorders associated with developmental delays
Down syndrome
Hypotonia or hypertonia
Cerebral palsy
ADHD
Learning Disabilities
Follow-up of high-risk/premature newborns
Many kids with SPD do see a dev ped, if they have motor skill delays. Sometimes other conditions need to be ruled out before a diagnosis of SPD is given. Also, since private OT usually requires a doctor's prescription or refferal, the dev ped often provides that as well. Of course a family doctor or regular ped can usually prescribe OT as well, but many of these docs might send a pateint to a dev ped first.

[jess_g]

My 10 year old ds sees a developmental ped. At first it was part of an evaluation that we did to rule in or out ADHD and Autism at a local hospital, but now we see him once a year for a checkup. Its great to get another perspective on how my son is doing and what kind of things we should be working on with him for his development. The docter will look over my ds's IEP and explain what he should be doing and what we should try to work on with him. Plus he will answer any questions we have and realy checks my ds to see if he still fits the original diagnosis he gave him or if it needs to change. I think its a good type of docter to see to get a different perspective on your child.

Jessica.