Communication and Interaction and Standard Multi-Disciplinary Assessment

Who are we?

At the Child Development Centres in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin, we are the team of health professionals providing services for children with additional needs who are aged 5 years and under.

Children attend the Child Development Centres for any of these reasons: assessment, diagnosis, intervention, and advice.

Why has my child been referred to the Child Development Centre (CDC)?

Your child has been referred for these MDAs by their Community Paediatrician who will have gathered information about their health and development from many sources e.g., from education, or an accredited health professional such as a health visitor, GP, or therapist.

This helps to decide if further assessment or support is needed. A referral is made to the Child Development Centre’s referral panel, who will then go through set criteria to decide if the referral is appropriate and which assessment or support pathway is suitable. The Communication and Interaction MDA is for children who have significant difficulties interacting and communicating intentionally, may have some repetitive movements and behaviours and/or some unusual sensory responses.

If the referral is not appropriate, then an intervention or support package may be recommended.

The Child Development Centre will only see children with:

• Complex long-term neuro-disability
• Complex medical problems with learning needs expected to be long term
• Neurodevelopmental difficulties in particular with communication and interaction problems
  

Only children who are 5 years and under will be seen at the Child Development Centre.

What happens at a Multi-Disciplinary Assessment (MDA)?

A team of professionals will be part of your child’s assessment, this is called a Multi-Disciplinary Team.

This can include a:

• Community Paediatrician
• Speech and Language Therapist
• Specialist Nursery Nurse
• Local Authority representative for Education - this may be an Educational Psychologist, Portage home visitor, Learning Support Advisory Teacher or SENDCo

As the parent, the professionals will talk to you and encourage you to contribute to the assessment, as your knowledge of your child is valued.

Your child will be observed through play, and informal or formal assessment. This will help to identify any strengths and difficulties, and this may lead to a diagnosis of a medical condition or developmental disability.

Prior to discussions with parents, professionals involved in your child’s care and education are invited to contribute or discuss any concerns.

A parent feedback meeting will then be arranged to share the findings of the assessment.

Depending on your child’s needs, recommendations may be made for further health support and intervention.

If a local authority representative has taken an active part in the assessment, then there may be some educational recommendations that will be shared.

Parents, carer or person with parental responsibility will receive a report with all the findings from the assessment.

This will have contributions from all professionals involved, including any recommendations.

This report will be shared with the following services if they are involved in your child’s care in order for your child to receive support.

• NHS Trusts (i.e., Hospitals)
• Community Services such as GP, health visitor, therapist
• Local Authority SEND team
• Education Services

Links to videos

This link will take you to a video about the Multi Disciplinary Assessment process.

This link will take you to a video about what to expect at your child's Multi Disciplinary Assessment.