The short answer: your regular paediatrician looks after your child’s health — illness, growth, vaccinations. A developmental paediatrician specialises in how your child is developing — speech, social connection, attention, learning, behaviour. See one when a specific worry keeps recurring: missed milestones, lost skills, a teacher’s persistent flag, or a gut feeling that has survived three months of “let’s wait and see.”
The signs that justify the visit
By age: no babbling or gestures by 12 months; no words by 16–18 months; fewer than 50 words or no two-word phrases at 24 months; not pointing to share interest; inconsistent response to name.
At any age: loss of words, skills, or social behaviours the child previously had — this one always warrants prompt assessment, not observation.
At school age: persistent teacher concerns about attention or behaviour across terms; a bright child whose reading or writing stubbornly lags; social struggles that don’t improve with age.
And honestly: a parental instinct that keeps returning. In our experience, by the time a parent has typed the worry into Google at 2 AM more than a few times, the question deserves a professional answer — in either direction.
Why a twenty-minute well-child visit can miss it
Your regular paediatrician is checking many things in a short slot, with a child who may be crying, sleepy, or on their best behaviour. Development — especially social communication — needs observation time and structured tools. That’s not a criticism of general paediatrics; it’s the reason the sub-specialty exists. The two work best together: your paediatrician guards the health, the developmental assessment answers the development question, in writing.
What you get from it
A NeuroNurture developmental assessment produces a written report: your child’s profile across communication, social, motor, and daily-living domains, mapped against published milestones — what’s on track, what needs support, and a specific plan (or the specific reassurance that none is needed). Every assessment is done by our developmental paediatrician, and every report is written to be understood by parents and usable by schools.
The doorway is deliberately low: a free 30-minute video consultation. Bring the worry as it actually is — half-formed is fine. You’ll leave with it either answered or properly booked for answering.
