The SpecialMoms Parenting Magazine 3rd Issue | Page 11

Developmental Pediatricians
But parents needn’t sit back and wait for
their appointment, worrying that their child
is falling behind more with each passing
week, Roberts says.
“When we get the intake package back that
we ask parents to fill out, we review it, and
if a child isn’t receiving any services and it’s
clear there are issues there, we will call that
family and say, ‘While you’re waiting for our
appointment, you can start intervention,
and here are some therapies that we would
suggest,’” she says.
Roberts’ team encourages families to contact Early Childhood Intervention services
in their area (see resource list in sidebar) so
their child can be evaluated.
“They can get them started even before a
diagnosis, and in most developmental situations, that’s an OK thing to do,” she says.
“The other thing we do is look at what the
situation is: If a child is losing skills or having
more of an acute issue, we prioritize those
patients to make sure that they get seen as
quickly as we can possibly see them.”

A Marathon, Not A Sprint
Catherine Allen learned that this waiting
time can be very productive for parents and
suggests that if you’re on the cusp of this uphill journey, there are ways to be proactive.
“For these parents – and I used to be this
way when I started out – everything is so vitally important that it needs to be dealt with
right now,” Allen says. “But that’s not really
the truth, because sometimes what happens
during the waiting period, especially if you
have to fill out a very intense application,
is you’re forced to put everything down on
facebook

11

paper, think about it and observe more of
what’s happening.”

Allen thought
doctors would be
telling her what
was wrong and
what to do, but she
quickly realized
that as a parent,
she was the expert.
“Parents have to be prepared for their appointments,” she says. “Doctors don’t know
what’s happening at home, and they cannot
observe everything that is vital to them being able to make a really great strategic plan
in a 30-minute appointment. They rely on
parents’ information.”

First Visit
Roberts notes that a first appointment generally lasts between 90 minutes to two hours,
during which she will take a thorough medical history and conduct a comprehensive
physical examination.
“We focus on the child’s features, looking at
the neurological exam in particular, and also
at skin, because those are the three basic areas that help us point to some developmental issues,” she says. “We then look at how the
child is interacting in his/her environment:
We watch them play, we do some standardized developmental testing to assess where
they’re functioning. We then sit down with
the family and come up with a comprehentwitter