Provides a wide rage of services for children with special and developmental healthcare needs and their families. Integrates physical health, behavior, mental health, and educational services to optimize daily life for the child and family. Provides Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnostic clinic, behavioral and developmental evaluations, cleft lip and palate program, infant and toddler early intervention, medical specialty clinics, nurse family partnership, pediatric dental services, therapy services, speech and language therapy, genetics program, and family support.

Specialty & Developmental Healthcare Support offered at Children's Village

Provides a wide rage of services for children with special and developmental healthcare needs and their families.

Programs that apply what is known about human genetics to advise prospective parents who are concerned about the recurrence of hereditary problems or abnormalities in their offspring or for others (adults and children) who may be at risk for a variety of inherited conditions and need information about their own prospects for health. Genetic counseling is also routinely offered to individuals, usually age 35 and older, who are considering a first pregnancy. Genetic counselors identify families at risk, investigate the problem present in the family, interpret information about the disorder, analyze inheritance patterns and risks of recurrence and review available options with the family. They also provide supportive counseling to families, serve as patient advocates and refer individuals and families to community or state support services.

Genetic Counseling

Programs that identify infants, toddlers and in some cases, preschoolers who show evidence of or are at risk for lags in physical development, cognitive development, language and speech development, psychosocial development or self-help skills, and provide or coordinate the delivery of an enrichment program in order to minimize the potential for a developmental delay and to meet their current developmental needs. The program may include early identification activities (child find); a developmental evaluation; a review of family concerns, priorities and resources; meetings with the family to develop an individualized family service plan; service coordination to ensure that the individual and his or her family receive needed services which may include but are not limited to physical therapy, occupational therapy, audiology, health/medical services, nursing services, nutrition services, psychological services including specialized play groups or therapy sessions, counseling, speech and language assistance, special instructional services, transportation, and parenting skills development; and ongoing evaluation of the child's progress and his or her changing enrichment needs. Included are "birth to three" programs and federal, state or local programs that address the needs of slightly older children or children not otherwise eligible for "birth to three" programs.

Early Intervention for Children With Disabilities/Delays

Programs that are staffed by specialists who provide comprehensive, primary care outpatient services for individuals, from infancy through young adulthood, who do not require hospitalization.

Ambulatory Pediatrics

Programs that provide comprehensive diagnostic and treatment services for children born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial anomalies. Services are generally provided by a multidisciplinary team which may include lactation specialists who offer assistance with feeding problems; speech and language pathologists who offer advice on ways to encourage normal speech development and help the child with speech and language problems that may develop; audiologists and ear, nose and throat specialists (otolaryngologists) who provide services related to hearing and ear care; plastic surgeons who perform cleft lip/palate surgery; orthodontists and pediatric dentists who provide information about future dental needs; maxillofacial prosthedontists who replace missing teeth or develop appliances to improve speech; genetic counselors who help the family understand the origins of the problem; and social workers who provide assistance with coordination of services, information about hospitalizations, and referrals for parent-to-parent support.

Cleft Lip/Palate Clinics

Programs that provide educational and supportive services that help new parents or those expecting a child, to prepare them on an emotional and practical level for the impact the newborn will have on their lives and relationships. The programs are open to all parents. Initial focus areas include healthy eating for the mother, danger signs in pregnancy, sibling preparation and being ready for labor and delivery, followed by practical information on basic infant care, newborn behaviors, baby supplies, bathing techniques, diapering, breastfeeding and other feeding options, as well as infant and childhood illnesses. Later topics may include walking, talking, toilet training and other aspects of child development, all to help ensure that infants and toddlers are nurtured, live in a safe environment and receive proper health care.

General Expectant/New Parent Assistance

Programs that utilize play as a form of catharsis to enable children to express feelings and emotions which, if allowed to build up, could cause or further maladjustment. Play therapy is also used as a tool for diagnosing the source of a child's difficulty.

Play Therapy

Programs that provide a comprehensive, structured evaluation of a child's cognitive/intellectual functioning, language and communication skills, independent living skills, social and emotional development and perceptual/motor functioning in order to identify individuals who show developmental delays, determine the nature and extent of the problem and recommend a course of treatment and care. Developmental assessments are generally offered by a developmental assessment specialist, or a team of professionals that can include a pediatrician, language specialist, audiologist, occupational therapist, child psychologist and child psychiatrist, among others. They involve age-adjusted questions regarding a child's growth, physical movements, behavior, play, and interactions with family members and the rest of the world as well as a series of tests that may include a physical exam, hearing and eye screenings, play observation, and standardized tests that present the child with specific tasks to determine areas of strength and weakness. They can also be used to identify individuals who have developmental disabilities such as intellectual disabilities, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism and neurological impairments, in order to establish eligibility for state and federally funded programs.

Pediatric Developmental Assessment

Programs that visit the homes of parents who want to acquire the knowledge and skills to be effective in their parenting role and provide parenting education services in the family setting. The programs may focus on teen parents; parents who need to develop skills to handle a difficult child; families who want to learn school-readiness activities to share with their child; individuals for whom parenting is a new experience; families at risk for child abuse, neglect or out-of-home placement; or others who have issues that are most effectively resolved in the home environment.

Home Based Parenting Education

Programs that offer a procedure that is designed to identify children who should receive more intensive assessment or diagnosis for potential developmental delays. Screening tools can be specific to a disorder (e.g., autism), an area (e.g., cognitive development, language, or gross motor skills), or they may be general, encompassing multiple areas of concern; and rely heavily on parent observation. They do not provide conclusive evidence of developmental delays and do not result in diagnoses. A positive screening result should be followed by a thorough assessment. The goal of developmental screening is to allow for earlier detection of delays in order to improve child health and well-being for identified children.

Pediatric Developmental Screening

Programs that teach skills that enable parents to deal constructively and consistently with a broad spectrum of child rearing problems which may include sibling rivalry; school behavior and performance; poor self-esteem; shyness; drug use; sexual promiscuity; and the whole range of negative, acting-out behaviors including whining, temper tantrums, disobedience, insolence and destructiveness. Some parenting skills development programs utilize a step-by-step approach for managing specific problems and may incorporate application at home of techniques that were discussed and practiced in the classroom setting. Other programs may offer participatory family workshops which provide opportunities for parents and children to learn and practice methods for dealing with one another under the guidance of a trained facilitator. Most training programs teach the parent a particular way of talking and relating to their children that reinforces positive behaviors and communication and decreases negative behaviors while supporting the development of a relationship that is built on fairness, mutual caring and respect.

Parenting Skills Classes

Programs that link parents whose children have a specific disease, disorder, disability or other issues with other parents whose children have similar challenges for the purpose of information sharing and support. Also included are programs for parents who themselves have a disability or other problems that have an impact on their parenting ability.

Parent to Parent Networking

Programs offered by the schools or available through public or private agencies that assess children with behavioral or emotional problems that are interfering with their educational progress or the progress of other students. A functional assessment uses a variety of techniques to understand what's behind a child's inappropriate behaviors including non-academic factors that might be contributing to a child's frustration with learning. The process leads to development of an intervention plan that focuses on teaching new behavior and social skills. Modification of the school or classroom environment and activities, adaptation of curriculum and instructional delivery, and changes to elements in the teacher/student relationship that encourage the undesirable behavior are usually also involved. A functional assessment has a narrower focus than a special education assessment. It focuses on the why, how, where, when and what of a child's behavior whereas a special education assessment is a comprehensive evaluation that is used to see if a child is eligible for special education services.

Functional Behavioral Assessment

Health care providers that offer the Child Health and Disability Prevention Program, a health assessment and treatment program for low-income children and youth through age 21 that is designed to assure early detection, diagnosis and treatment of diseases or impairments which might adversely affect the individual's growth and development. CHDP exams generally include a complete physical examination; a dental assessment; a nutritional assessment; vision and hearing screening; immunizations; urine, blood and tuberculosis screening tests; specialized laboratory tests, as needed; and health education on topics such as tobacco use prevention, lead poisoning prevention and other issues pertaining to child health.

Child Health and Disability Prevention Exams

Mutual support groups whose members are family, friends, significant others, non-familial caregivers or attendants who are caring for someone who has a temporary, chronic, life-threatening or terminal illness or disability or who is elderly and increasingly unable to provide for his or her own care. The groups meet in-person, by telephone or via the Internet; and provide emotional support, information and resources to help participants ensure their own well-being while remaining involved in the intense care of a loved one. Also included are care receiver support groups that help people who have a caregiver cope with the fact that they require care. Care receiver support groups are often offered in conjunction with caregiver support groups and are structured to allow care receivers to participate in their own group while their caregiver attends another.

Caregiver/Care Receiver Support Groups

Programs that specialize in providing oral health care for infants, children and adolescents.