A doctor-led assessment that looks at the whole child
Children seen at Geniuslane are assessed by the clinicians their situation calls for — medical and developmental evaluation by a doctor, alongside psychological and developmental assessment.
Who assesses your child
A developmental paediatrician leads the assessment, because many of the questions that matter early on are medical ones: is there a neurological cause, is there an untreated problem making everything harder, is the current medication helping or hindering.
Psychological and developmental assessment sits alongside that, building the picture of how the child learns, communicates, plays, senses the world and manages their emotions. Where a child's situation is complex, the clinical team discusses it together with Dr Rahul Bharat rather than each discipline working in isolation.
What the assessment covers
- Developmental and medical history, including pregnancy, birth and early illness
- Physical and neurological examination
- The developmental profile — communication, movement, play, learning, social interaction
- Attention, emotional regulation and sensory processing
- Associated medical problems that commonly go unrecognised: sleep, feeding, vision, hearing, seizures
- Current medication, what it is for, and whether it is doing more good than harm
- The environments the child actually spends their time in — home, school, community
The last of those is not a formality. A child who manages well at home and falls apart at school is telling us something specific, and it is usually about the environment rather than the child.
Investigations follow the assessment, not the other way round
Tests are ordered to answer a question the assessment has raised. That is also the position of UK NICE guidance, which advises that medical investigations are not a routine part of a diagnostic assessment, but should be considered on the basis of physical examination, clinical judgement and the child's own profile.
In practice that means most children have very few investigations, and the ones that are done are chosen because there is a reason to expect them to change something.
A worked example
A three-year-old is referred with speech delay. The assessment finds reduced eye contact, some repetitive play, and frequent brief staring episodes the family had assumed were daydreaming.
The staring episodes now need explaining, because if they are seizures they may be interrupting the child's learning many times a day, and no amount of speech therapy will outrun that. The autism question remains open and is worth answering properly. And the speech delay — the thing the family came in for — may turn out to be a consequence rather than the problem itself.
A service that started from “which therapy does this child need” would have booked speech therapy and been busy for a year.
What you leave with
- An explanation of what we found, in language you can repeat to your family
- A profile of your child's strengths as well as their difficulties
- A plan that says what to change, what to work on and what to watch
- Whatever investigations or referrals are genuinely indicated
- A date to be reassessed, so progress is measured rather than assumed
Talk to us about your child
An assessment starts with a conversation. Tell us what you have noticed and we will explain what would help.
Read next
This page explains how we work and is general information for parents. It is not a diagnosis, and it is not a substitute for advice about your own child. For guidance specific to your child, book an assessment. In an emergency, contact your local emergency services.