Child Assessment Service (CAS) serves children who are under 12 years of age with developmental-behavioural problems or disorders. Children can be referred from the community physicians or psychologists, or directly from hospital (e.g. premature babies). Professional assessment and follow up services will be provided according to the need of children. For children with complicated medical conditions (e.g. children with physical impairment and acquired cognitive impairment), multidisciplinary team assessments are arranged in order to evaluate their problems, monitor their progress and provide educational and rehabilitation advices.
Common childhood developmental problems include:
CAS provides the following support services for our clients and their families.
1. To raise public awareness to the special needs of children with developmental problems.
2. To allow the public to understand the scope of service of CAS.
Professionals in CAS contribute articles to public media such as newspapers to promote societal awareness. We also participate in media production such as radio shows to share knowledge and update understanding in child development and developmental-behavioural problems. In addition, we have published some pamphlets and fact sheets for parents and picture books for children to heighten the public awareness.
1. To promote professional development in the field of Developmental and Behavioural Paediatrics.
2. To provide platforms for knowledge sharing between service partners.
CAS is the accredited training centre of the Hong Kong College of Paediatricians that conducts specialist training for General Paediatric trainees and Paediatric fellows who are interested to further their training in the subspecialty of developmental-behavioural paediatrics. In addition, CAS also offers clinical internship and attachment opportunities to other relevant professionals, such as clinical psychologists, speech therapists, audiologists, occupational therapists and nurses.
Professionals in CAS have regular presentations in various professional bodies or organizations, and give lectures to medical students or postgraduate students on regular basis.
In order to provide high quality assessment service, CAS has to ensure that the entire assessment procedure, content and tools comply with international standards. Therefore, we also conduct scientific research and apply it to our clinical practice. Over the years, we have localised overseas assessment tools and collected data to build local norms. In recent years, our professional team has collaborated with local universities on research and development of assessment tools designed for local children.
With 40 years of provision of child assessment service in Hong Kong, we have accumulated large amount of data and information on developmental disabilities of local children. We conduct data analyses regularly in order to gain a better understanding of the clinical picture of these children. This enables us to provide better service for our clients.
In order to share with other professional colleagues the recent updates on various developmental disabilities and our research results, we publish the Child Assessment Service Epidemiology and Research Bulletin (CASER) regularly as well as other scientific publications. For public education, we have also published some pamphlets and fact sheets for parents and picture books for children.
CAS promotes, protects and ensures the health, welfare and rights of children with diverse needs through specialised clinical services and participation in education, advocacy, research and policy making.
Through engagement in public and professional education, we aim at enhancing understanding of developmental conditions and correcting related myths. We provide counselling and training activities to parents to promote knowledge and self-help skills, and supports parent self-help groups through consultation and advice. We uphold evidence based practice and are active in research to assure practice standards and contribute to knowledge and practice in the field. We work with partners in governmental and non-governmental organizations to promote programme integration and seamless service delivery, and participate in policy planning and deliberation.
Through holistic and timely support, clinical expertise and a multidisciplinary team that specialises in developmental behavioural paediatrics and paediatric rehabilitation, CAS is committed to helping children with special needs overcome developmental challenges, develop their full potential and lead fulfilled lives.