The Developmental Assessment Clinic is the backbone of the Desmond Clinics. This clinic, housed at the Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics at the Stadium Drive Clinic Location of Texas Children’s Hospital, provides comprehensive developmental evaluations with a developmental specialist for infants with or have potential for developmental disabilities including prematurity, low birth weight, prenatal complications, medical complications, genetic disorders, and more.
Evaluations will occur at a frequency that is meaningful and useful for both the family and the child seen within the clinic. We value the principle that every visit should be offered for a reason with a specific goal as opposed to a standard follow-up time. Over the course of the clinic, the visits by the nature of child development will spread out and become less frequent to allow to assess for developmental gains in a meaningful manner.
Developmental Evaluations incorporate family experience and reported skill attainment as well as direct observations. As each evaluation is only a point-in-time, this cannot fully predict any individual’s long-term outcomes. More mild difficulties and disabilities can only be accurately assessed and diagnosed at older ages and our evaluation emphasis takes this into account at each visit.
