Developmental Assessment for Children
The Child Development Program (CDP) provides:
- developmental assessments,
- therapy,
- ongoing care, and
- case management.
Children we assess may have a developmental need or concern. They may also have characteristics of:
- Autism spectrum disorder,
- Speech and hearing conditions,
- Behavioral or emotional concerns (such as ADHD),
- Developmental delays, or
- Cognitive concerns.
Your child will meet with one or more members of our team, which brings together multiple providers from different specialties. These are the following disciplines:
- Developmental pediatrics
- Speech and language pathology
- Occupational therapy
- Physical therapy
- Psychology
Partnering With Primary Care Providers (PCP)s
Providers at the CDP do not replace your child’s primary care provider (PCP). We work in partnership with your child’s PCP. We share all the documentation from our assessments with your child’s PCP so that we can work as a team to support your child’s development.
One of our pediatric providers may see your child for follow-up visits and medication management to assist your PCP in ongoing care.
Scheduling an Appointment For Your Child
To see providers in our program, you need to have a referral. If you have concerns about your child, please discuss them with your primary care provider (PCP) or other provider on your child’s treatment team.
Your PCP or other provider can refer your child to the child developmental program by using our secured fax at 801-585-2209 or through their electronic medical record.
Wait Time for Assessments
We try to schedule assessments as soon as we can. Sometimes, however, it may take a number of months after we receive the referral before we call you to schedule you first visit.
Please know we will do our best and that we will contact you as soon as we are able to schedule a first visit with you and your child. We will send you a text message when we receive the referral to let you know we have received it.
Before Your Assessment
While you are waiting for your assessment, there are resources you can access to help your child’s development:
- Our family resources section has a curated list of resources we recommend.
What Are Assessments Like?
Assessments at the child development program are done with different providers on different days. We do this so that we can see and evaluate your child at different times to get the most complete picture of your child’s behavior and development.
Visit Lengths
We have also found that spacing out the visits on different days allows you and your child the chance to rest and recover. The visits can each last between one to four hours.
By the end of all appointments, one of the members of our developmental pediatrics or psychology teams will review the diagnoses and a plan for treatment. After the assessment, one of the members of our developmental pediatrics team can continue to see you and your child on an ongoing basis to help with medication management and access to the supports and services you need.
Virtual Visits or In-Person Visits
We offer both virtual visits or in-person visits. Learn more about these options.
Pre-Visit Paperwork & Questionnaires
Ideally, we prefer that you complete paperwork and questionnaires before we schedule your visits in order to prepare our providers about the issues that you and your child are facing. Please know that our providers review this information before your visit.
Completing any paperwork or questionnaires as soon as possible will help in getting visits scheduled more quickly.
We will also provide instructions on how to do complete questionnaires but if you have trouble, please let us know and we will try to assist you. If your child has already received any previous developmental testing, please fax or email us copies. We will review any previous testing to determine whether it can assist us in your child’s assessment.
What to Expect at Your First Appointment
Visits are either virtual visits or in person. Learn more about these options.
Assessments at the child developmental program begin with a welcome visit. This visit is one hour long. You and your child will meet with a member of our team to gather some initial information about your concerns. This visit serves to determine which of our assessment team can best address your concerns.
The welcome visit is the time when we work with you and your child to determine the next steps in the assessment process. We can usually do the welcome visit by virtual visit (video) for your convenience.
Follow Up Visits
After the welcome visit, we will ask you to complete some questionnaires or rating scales of your child’s behavior and development. The questionnaires will be sent to you electronically.
We use this information to learn more about your child and how to help and support your family. As soon as we receive the completed questionnaires, we will be able to schedule your child’s visits.
Sharing information With Your PCP
The clinic will send your PCP a summary of your visits and test results. You can access results of all your visits through MyChart. To set up an account if you do not already have one, visit MyChart or call 801-213-5555, option #1 for help.
You can share the results with anyone you choose to.
Services After Diagnosis
The providers at the child development program may make recommendations for therapy options based on the results of the assessment. We will share these recommendations with you so that you can contact the recommended providers to arrange for services to begin.
If you need help with this our providers and nurse case manager can assist you.
Cost for CDP Services
The cost for our services depends on things like insurance coverage and which of our services are used. We contract with most insurance plans (including Medicaid). You may wish to contact your insurance company directly to check the coverage and your financial responsibility before your visits with us.
If you would like to discuss payment for services received, you can contact the University of Utah Medical Billing office who will work with you on payment plans and possible discounts. Their number is 801-587-6303 and can also be found on your billing statement.
Find A Specialist
A Relationship Created for the Best Pediatric Care
For pediatric specialty care, Intermountain Children's Health is affiliated with University of Utah Health. U of U Health physicians see patients at Primary Children's Hospital on campus, Lehi Primary Children's, and other locations throughout the Salt Lake City valley.
It's a shared mission of providing health care, education, and research. It comes to life through collaboration on clinical care, research, and educational programs.
Primary Children's Hospital operates as the main pediatric facility for the U of U Health system, providing care in more than 60 medical and surgical specialties such as surgery, oncology, cardiology, orthopedics, and others. Most of the providers at Primary Children's Hospital are faculty members at U of U Health.
This partnership delivers care to advance pediatric medicine while educating future generations of health care professionals.
How Can CDP Work With Early Intervention & Special Education
The CDP is different from early intervention or the special education program in that we may provide more specific diagnoses as a result of the assessment.
Evaluations done in educational settings are to determine if your child is eligible for special education services. Children that qualify are given an educational classification rather than a specific diagnosis.
CDP diagnostic assessments offer more specific diagnoses, such as autism spectrum disorder, and may enable children to access more condition-specific interventions.
Research Programs
We are currently involved in an autism study called SPARK. If your child or anyone you know has an autism diagnosis, they can participate in SPARK. Learn more about SPARK or email our SPARK team at sparkforautism@hsc.utah.edu.
Contact Us or Refer a Patient
You can email, call, or fax us.
Phone: 801-587-2255
Email: udac@hsc.utah.edu
Fax: 801-585-2209
Refer a Patient
Please fill out this referral form and fax it to 801-585-2209.