Childhood problems don't go away by themselves.
The Center for Human Development at Beaumont Children's is
the most comprehensive facility of its kind for the diagnosis and
treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. Offering the most advanced care
for children from preschool to college, it is the only center with
Beaumont doctors who are board-certified developmental pediatricians and
child psychiatrists.
Our expertise includes ADD/ADHD, developmental delays and dyslexia as
well as childhood learning disabilities and development concerns. We listen to parents, evaluate each child's strengths and weaknesses,
then create individual treatment plans to help each child maximize his
or her potential.
If your child just can't seem to sit still...
We will carefully evaluate his impulse control, attention span and
learning style. Our experts will consider whether ADHD or something else
may be the cause and help you determine the most appropriate strategies
you and your school can use to help.
If your child can't seem get her homework done...
Trouble focusing and getting organized could be the result of
learning, emotional or attention difficulties. Our team of expert
clinicians will meet with your family to assess possible causes and find
solutions.
If you're worried your child isn't making friends...
Our clinicians are experienced in many types of childhood
socialization issues. We will work with you to understand your child's
social difficulties. An individualized assessment will determine if
further help is needed.
If your child is an underachiever who is falling behind in school...
It could be underlying learning, emotional or attention challenges.
Our clinical team members customize their approach to each child as they
create a pathway to academic success.
If your child's difficulty with letters and words has you worrying about dyslexia...
Early identification and intervention is crucial. Our team will help your child find success.
If you're concerned that your child isn't speaking yet...
Our team of experts will evaluate your child's language, social
skills and medical status. We'll help you find solid answers to improve
communication skills.
OUR APPROACH
At Beaumont's Center for Human Development, we're committed to an
interdisciplinary approach to assess a child's developmental strengths
and weaknesses. The perspectives of psychology and neurodevelopmental
pediatrics are melded to determine recurrent themes of strengths and
dysfunction in order to develop recommendations that help the child
maximize his or her learning potential. Input from parents and school
personnel who are familiar with the child is critical. We use interview
and questionnaire tools to obtain important information about the child
from key sources.
Our goal for each childhood development assessment is to carefully
determine how to maximize a child's strengths and functional patterns of
behavior, and to provide strategies and recommendations to minimize the
impact of weaknesses and disabilities. This method tends to have a
positive impact on the child rather than simply detailing a list of
deficits identified as "abnormalities."
It is our hope that the childhood development assessment process
creates a blueprint for the family that will enable the child to succeed
in school and ultimately in life.
COMPONENTS
First, we interview the parents in order to build an information
base about the child. This intake interview provides the time to review
questionnaire data, history and parent concerns. From this information
we determine the type of assessment necessary to answer the questions
that have been raised.
Psychologists at Beaumont use observation and standardized techniques
to assess verbal and non-verbal function and problem-solving.
Beaumont's educational evaluation assesses the child's processing of
academic tasks and attempts to identify places where breakdowns in
processing occur.
The neurodevelopmental examination also seeks to assess processing by
systematically looking at the major neurodevelopmental functional
areas: gross motor function, fine motor function, temporal-sequential
organization, language, visual processing, visual-fine motor
integration, selective attention, strategy use and emotional adjustment.
The purpose of this childhood development assessment is to see how well
a child can perform various tasks and to analyze how the child performs
the tasks.
Through the childhood development assessment, we are interested in determining:
- the child's quality of performance
- the child's approach to problems
- the child's ability to develop strategies
- the child's capacity to deal with frustration and fatigue
After an assessment is completed, two of the professional staff
members who evaluated the child meet to review all data collected and
generated during the evaluation process. From this data, we develop a
diagnostic assessment, a summary of impressions and recommendations for
intervention strategies. When appropriate, and with the approval of the
parents, school personnel are asked to present their view of the child's
performance.
One of the professionals who assessed the child presents the findings
of the evaluation team to the child's parents or guardian. This
provides an opportunity to review the data, impressions and
recommendations of the evaluation and answer questions. It also provides
an opportunity for parents to give feedback to the professional staff
about the degree to which the evaluation captures the critical issues
and addresses them in ways which are meaningful.
At Beaumont's Center for Human Development it is our hope that
assessment of the child's strengths and weaknesses help the child be
more successful in school and ultimately in life, while providing a
blueprint for families as they seek to incorporate helpful interventions
into the child's educational program.