Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Program

Neurodevelopmental disabilities happen when a child’s brain, spinal cord and nerves (central nervous system) don’t develop as they should. These long-term conditions can affect your child’s ability to learn, speak, play and work, later in life.

At Children's Health℠, our experienced specialists have advanced training to support healthy brain development in infants, children, teens and young adults (up to age 22). With a team approach, we bring together deep expertise in several specialties to provide a thorough assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

Our team helps children with developmental disabilities such as rare genetic disorders and conditions that affect feeding, swallowing, speech, language, motor, social and thinking skills. We work closely with your family to create a comprehensive, personalized plan to help your child learn and grow.

Our neurodevelopmental disabilities team provides:

• Thorough evaluation with interviews, observation and standardized assessments

• Speech-language, occupational, physical and behavioral therapies

• Psychological counseling for your child and your family

• Assistive equipment to support learning, communication and mobility

• Referrals to sleep medicine specialists as needed

• Medications as needed

Expertise in managing neurodevelopmental disabilities

Our experienced pediatric team has specialized training to care for infants, children, teens and young adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities. The core team includes pediatric neurologists with six years of highly specialized training in pediatrics, child neurology and neurodevelopmental disabilities.

The team works closely with our pediatric psychologists who:

• Administer psychological assessments to evaluate your child’s abilities and challenges

• Provide counseling specifically for children and teens with autism spectrum disorder and their families

Our pediatric psychiatrists help manage children who have autism spectrum disorder, providing counseling and medication prescription and management.

Comprehensive evaluation to diagnose neurodevelopmental disabilities

We work as a team to get to know you and your child during our thorough evaluation, using interviews, observation and standard assessments. Learn more about our comprehensive developmental testing, which includes:

• Wide range of psychological tests, including assessments for language, IQ and autism spectrum disorder

• Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate brain development

• Electroencephalogram (EEG) to assess the brain’s electrical activity

• Genetic testing and counseling to understand how genetic conditions may affect your family

• Lab screening tests, such as blood tests, to rule out other conditions or confirm a diagnosis

Innovative therapies to treat neurodevelopmental disabilities

We provide as many options as possible to create the right plan for your child. Treatments may include:

• Speech-language pathology, including feeding and swallowing therapies

• Referrals to the Sleep Disorders Center, as needed

• Family education and training about healthy eating, social skill-building and ways to help manage emotions

• Behavioral therapies such as applied behavioral analysis (ABA) available on-site, which most programs don’t offer

• Occupational and physical therapies

• School and classroom accommodations to support learning

• Assistive equipment to boost communication and mobility

• Medications as needed

Research and training to improve care for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities

Specialists in our Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Program are scientists who take part in research to better understand these disorders. We’re studying ways to improve diagnosis, treatment and management to support children with complex health care needs.

Our research topics include:

• Fragile X syndrome

• Rare genetic variants of autism spectrum disorder

• Phelan-McDermid syndrome

• Pitt-Hopkins syndrome

We offer one of only eight residency programs for neurodevelopmental disabilities in the country, providing training and hands-on experience in research and patient care. Our program helps prepare tomorrow’s pediatric neurologists for careers that help improve the lives of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.