Intensive Care Follow-Up Clinic for cardiac patients – Neurodevelopmental Services
At Children’s Minnesota’s intensive care follow-up clinic, our cardiac neurodevelopmental team helps infants and teenagers with congenital heart disease (CHD) live to their true potential. Our clinic provides complete, coordinated neurodevelopmental care for children with complex heart conditions, guiding them from infancy through adolescence.
Neurodevelopment is a term that describes how our brains grow and form connections that control our abilities and behaviors. Children with CHD are at risk for neurodevelopmental complications, which can include problems with motor skills, coordination, behavior, and learning. Our program works to minimize these issues through longitudinal evaluation and multi-specialty treatment.
Why is cardiac neurodevelopment important?
Children with congenital heart disease are an exceptionally resilient group of children. They are also at risk for developmental delays throughout infancy, childhood and adolescence. Developmental concerns in children with CHD may start in infancy but often become more apparent in later childhood and adolescence. The type of issues they might face covers a wide range of brain development areas:
- Speech and language
- Inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity
- Executive functioning
- Fine and gross motor skills
- Learning and academic achievement
- Visual processing
- Adaptive functioning
- Feeding issues in infants
- Mood disorders such as anxiety and depression
- Family stress
Who is eligible to be seen in the clinic?
Infants and children born with congenital heart disease who need cardiac bypass surgery in the first year of life are eligible for the intensive care follow-up clinic for cardiac patients. Also, some children with heart conditions that don’t need surgery at birth but are at risk for developmental issues might qualify. If you think your child might be eligible, talk to your cardiologist.
Our approach for cardiac neurodevelopmental health
Our specialists have set up a clinic designed to screen, assess, and monitor children with CHD at Children’s Minnesota. We work with national groups like the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcomes Collaborative to make sure we’re using the best evidence-based methods. Our clinic identifies your child’s needs early and helps your whole family get the right support, including therapies or other services.
The intensive care follow-up clinic for cardiac patients has three key stages designed to check your child’s progress at important times as they grow. Each stage includes thorough assessment and personalized care plans to support your child. Here’s what happens at each stage:
Meet with a developmental specialist and occupational therapist. Review physical health, growth, assess cognition, language and motor skills. Screen for daily living skills, social-emotional functioning and family stress.
Meet with a developmental specialist and occupational therapist. Review physical health, growth, assess cognition, language and motor skills. Screen for daily living skills, social-emotional functioning and family stress.
Meet with a medical provider and neuropsychologist. Review physical health and growth, assess cognition, language, motor skills, and school readiness. Screen for daily living skills, social-emotional functioning and early mental processing skills.
What should I expect from a clinic visit?
Each visit lasts about 1-2 hours and includes play-based activities and structured games. We assess your child’s thinking, language, motor skills and social-emotional development.
During the visit you and your child may participate in the following:
- Review of past medical, social and developmental histories
- Developmental testing including cognition, motor development, speech and language development and social/emotional development
- Physical examination
Our aim is to assist in identifying the right early intervention services and educational support for your child. Through the intensive care follow-up clinic, your child may meet with or be referred to various clinical experts including:
- Developmental specialists (certified pediatric nurse practitioner and Neonatology)
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech and language pathology
- Developmental-behavioral pediatrics
- Neuropsychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Audiology
- Genetics
- Neurology
- Cardiology
What happens after the initial visit?
After each assessment parents and the primary care provider receive a report of clinical findings and developmental testing and a follow-up treatment plan. Our team of cardiac neurodevelopmental specialists will work with you to schedule future visits and appropriate specialist follow-up.
Contact us to schedule an appointment
We require a referral from the patient’s primary care provider and/or cardiologist for the initial visit. Our intake coordinator will assist with scheduling your child.
To learn more about the clinic or schedule an appointment, please call the developmental pediatric intake coordinator at 651-220-6144.
