Developmental Medicine

What to Expect with Developmental Medicine

Riley Developmental Medicine offers support and services to meet your child’s needs. This includes:

• Medical evaluation and care management recommendations
• Psychology testing and consultation
• Behavioral therapy for young children
• Feeding and growth evaluation
• Genetic testing and counseling
• Support to help children ages 12-22 transition to adult healthcare

Medical Evaluation & Management

When you meet with Riley Developmental Medicine team members, we do a full medical evaluation for your child. This includes reviewing your child’s past medical and developmental history and any prior imaging or scans.

After the evaluation, your child’s care team at Riley may recommend:

• Therapies and behavioral support
• Educational support
• Nutrition and dietary support
• Medications or other medical treatments
• Psychological testing
• Lab work
• Genetic testing
• Imaging

Riley Developmental Medicine also follows up with your child’s primary care provider so that we’re all on the same page when treating your child. Together, we can offer you a home base for your child’s complex medical needs. We manage and monitor your child’s changing needs so we can offer the right support at the right time. This may include managing feeding or medication and building ongoing care plans up through age 22.

Psychology Consultation & Testing

Our team offers psychological evaluations to understand how your child is developing and to determine whether they may have a developmental condition. There may be a lengthy wait to get a psychological evaluation. While you are waiting for an appointment , you can access several services to support your child’s development.

• Virtual consultation: Brief appointment to gather information and identify next steps for your child, potentially including school-based interventions, outpatient therapies, or assessment.
• Virtual assessment: Younger children who speak very little may have a virtual assessment. The psychologist will interview caregivers and observe different interactions with your child.
• In-person assessment: Depending on the concerns you have about your child’s development, the team may recommend an in-person assessment. This appointment can last from one to five hours , depending on your child’s age and needs. These assessments typically evaluate your child for autism, but they can also identify other conditions, such as intellectual development disorder , global developmental delay, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety.
• Interdisciplinary assessment: Sometimes, several different types of specialists will evaluate your child in one day. In an interdisciplinary assessment, your child may meet with speech and language pathologists, psychologists, developmental pediatricians and social workers. These appointments often take all day (up to seven hours) because providers work together to evaluate your child and provide recommendations to support them.
• Social work consultation: After an evaluation, many caregivers find it helpful to talk about resources. Our social work team can help you connect with the next steps to support your child’s development.

Behavioral Therapy for Young Children

Your provider may recommend behavioral therapy for your child. This kind of therapy helps to increase positive behaviors and reduce challenging ones. We offer three kinds of behavioral therapy, which are typically provided virtually:

• Short-term behavior treatment is available for parents of children six years or younger with behavior concerns. This includes up to eight sessions to review general behavior strategies that can be used with your child. These sessions may also offer more targeted treatments that address specific concerns, such as toilet-training, biting, sleep concerns or picky eating.
• Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is for children aged 2 – 7 with behavioral challenges. This therapy uses a coaching model, which means the therapist works with the parent and child together in sessions.
• Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is intended for young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or kids who show traits of autism. A certified ESDM therapist coaches parents in new ways to help you promote your child’s development.

Riley Feeding Evaluations

The Riley Feeding Program is a team of providers from different specialties who serve children and families experiencing feeding challenges. Our feeding team mainly treats children who are older than one year and who have difficulty eating, swallowing, using a feeding tube or maintaining a healthy weight. This can include children who feel anxious or selective (picky) when eating and children who gag and choke when eating (dysphagia).

You and your child will likely have more than one appointment to complete a consultation with our feeding team:

• An initial consultation with a developmental pediatrician and a registered dietitian. During this appointment, a doctor will physically examine your child and ask about your child’s medical, social and family history. The team will ask questions to get a detailed understanding of your child’s diet and feeding habits. You may receive a family-centered care plan and a resource binder at this first appointment.
• A follow-up consultation with a feeding therapist, often occupational and speech therapists. This team will review your child’s feeding and dietary history and observe your child at the table to understand how they eat. After this appointment, you may receive expert recommendations and a plan for ongoing feeding therapy.
• Consultation sessions with child psychology, social work and nursing. These appointments will be scheduled as needed.

Genetic Counseling Services

Some developmental disorders are genetic, meaning they were caused by changes in your child’s DNA. Riley Developmental Medicine offers both genetic testing and genetic counseling to identify these causes. We help you understand the results and connect you with support services.

• Genetic testing. We offer complete genetic testing that can typically be completed at home with a cheek swab. Our team can order two kinds of genetic tests: “whole exome” and “whole genome sequencing.” These tests quickly scan your child’s DNA to find the cause of your child’s disorder. Your doctor will talk to you about your child’s history and whether it makes sense to have genetic testing. Sometimes, your child may need to repeat a test because genetic testing can produce negative or uncertain results or because a new test has been developed. We might discuss additional tests with you at a follow-up appointment.
• Genetic counseling. After genetic testing, we will review your child’s results and meet with you to interpret them in a way that is easy for you to understand. Our team can offer you supportive counseling to process the results and direct you to helpful resources.

Healthcare Transition Program

This team helps patients ages 12 to 22 shift from a healthcare system focused on kids to one for adults. This visit takes a couple of hours and will include visits with a nurse, social worker and doctor. Together, we will develop a transition plan and share it with you and your doctors. The team can help you plan for adult insurance when your child needs it, prepare for life after high school and show how family, friends, and community programs can support you and your child.