Children’s Development and Behaviour Pathway
Paediatric Core Diagnostic team
The Paediatric Core Diagnostic team includes professionals such as paediatricians, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists and specialist nurses.
Paediatricians are doctors who manage medical conditions affecting infants, children and young people.
Speech and language therapists provide life-changing treatment, support and care for children and adults who have difficulties with communication, eating, drinking and swallowing. They help people who, for physical or psychological reasons, have problems speaking and communicating.
Occupational therapists work with people of all ages and can look at all aspects of daily life in your home, school or workplace. They look at activities you find difficult and see if there’s another way you can do them. For the ASD assessment the occupational therapist can look at how an individual’s sensory systems work and how that impacts home and school.
Clinical psychologists work with people of all ages on a wide range of psychological difficulties in mental and physical health.
Specialist nurses support children, young people and their families, with a diagnosis of, or undergoing assessment of a neurodevelopmental condition. This can include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/ADD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and associated difficulties at home or in school.
Referral and assessment
School age pathway
- Referral – Referral received from school, SENDCo or GP if home schooled – referral accepted.
- Assessment – Initial assessment appointment (GDA -General Developmental Assessment). Further assessments may be needed. This may vary
depending on the child/young person’s needs. It could be a face-to-face meeting with a clinician (if your initial appointment was virtual); a specialist Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) assessment; an ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule); a school-based observational assessment. - Feedback – Feedback appointment with clinician including advice, resources and signposting to support services.
- Discharge – Discharged from service. If ongoing needs identified, then follow-up appointments are made.
Who can refer?
If you are concerned about your child, the below professionals can refer:
- For children that have not yet started school, please speak to the early years setting or the health visitor for a referral.
- For school-aged children, please speak to the School SENCO or (GP if home-schooled) for a referral to the pathway.
What for?
We accept referrals when there are concerns about a child to do with:
- Communication
- Social interaction
- Difficult or unpredictable behaviour
- Difficulty with daily tasks.
We try to find out whether there is a developmental problem affecting the child’s learning and behaviour.
What happens?
Our assessments include:
- Completing questionnaires
- Gathering information from school/pre-school/nursery
- Meetings with yourself and your child to review and assess their development.
What you can expect
Unfortunately, there are currently long waiting times for assessment. We are very sorry about this wait and are trying hard to improve it.
For up to date information about current wait times, please visit the NHS Dorset Neurodiversity Hub website.
We may send questionnaires to you, your child’s school, pre-school or nursery to complete and return. If you receive these, this information needs to be returned prior to your assessment appointment.
In the meantime, whilst waiting for an appointment you may find the below information and strategy pack helpful.
Autism and ADHD
Please see the assessment process for Autism and ADHD via the links below:
Useful links
Parent toolkit | Ambitious about Autism
EarlyBird – Westfield Arts College – Broadening Horizons
SEND Local Offer – Dorset Council
Emotional support for family members after a diagnosis
Parenting support courses – Dorset Council
For parents in Dorset | Services | Action for Children
Patient feedback
Families, children, young people and professionals
If you would like to give us feedback on our Paediatric Community or Specialist Nursing Service, please complete our Paediatric Community and Outpatients Department Questionnaire.
Professionals and colleagues
If you have positive feedback for someone across the different teams within the trust, we would love for you to submit a Learning From Excellence (LFE) form. Direct feedback will be given to the individual and shared within the LFE Report.