Neurodevelopmental Disabilities clinical focus area

The Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD) clinical focus area includes:

• Community Consultation: This is an interdisciplinary, collaborative assessment process working with children (1-21 years of age) with complex health/developmental needs, their families and teams. The family and community team members create the questions they would like addressed by our interdisciplinary clinical faculty and trainees/fellows. An assessment in the community is completed in the fall; recommendations and action plans are developed in collaboration with the family and their team.  Support to implement action plans is provided by our trainees/fellows until May of that school year.
• Community Consultation Tools Training: Various tools, including several interdisciplinary tools, are used in the community consultation process. These include standardized assessment tools, e.g. Pediatric Evaluation Disability Inventory (PEDI), School Functioning Assessment (SFA), and non-standardized protocols, e.g., Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA), Observation of classroom environment. Training to use these tools is provided by our interdisciplinary clinical faculty in the fall. 
• Family Connection: Each trainee/fellow is paired with a family who has a child or youth with a developmental disability. The purpose is to learn from that family the joys and challenges of raising a child with disabilities.
• Legislative Training: A basic understanding of the legislative process is provided including how a bill becomes law, how to research a bill in process, and understanding the role of legislative committees. The training culminates with a day at the Statehouse in Montpelier while the legislature is in session. Meeting with children’s and disability advocates, attending a general session in the House or Senate, observing a committee meeting and meeting individually with either a Representative or Senator is included in the day.