Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!
During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Developmental problems.
These may include a physical examination or other medical tests.
Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing
your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information
you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
- How long have you noticed the developmental problems?
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
- What specific problems are you concerned about with development?
Why: e.g. gross motor skills, fine motor function, language and hearing or social skills and understanding.
- What are the details of the pregnancy, birth and new born?
Why: may detect prenatal infections, prenatal drugs and toxins, birth trauma, neonatal infection as a possible cause of developmental problems.
- Was the child born prematurely?
Why: must make allowance for prematurity i.e. if birth was at 32 weeks gestation, 8 weeks should be subtracted from the chronological age when assessing development, so that milestones would be expected to be reached 2 months later than a baby born at full term.
- Was the child born with any birth defects?
Why: e.g. any abnormality either structural or functional, identified at any age, but that began before birth such as anencephaly phenylketonuria, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, fetal alcohol syndrome, Down syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, hypothyroidism.
- What age was your baby when they reached certain milestones?
Why: e.g. smiling, able to remain in sitting position unsupported, crawled, walked.
- Extent of vocabulary?
Why: assesses expressive language.
- Is there consistent use of the same sounds for the same object or person?
- How many words can the child understand?
Why: assesses receptive language. Receptive language is usually well in advance of expressive language.
- Are you concerned about your child's ability to hear?
Why: the parent is usually the first to suspect a hearing problem.
- Environmental factors?
Why: may also affect development. Determine if home environment is appropriately stimulating to enable good language development and presents opportunities for a wide variety of play experience.
- If school age, what is the child's academic progress like?
- Emotional issues either in the child or family that may be contributing to developmental problems?
- History of head injury?
- Past medical history?
Why: e.g. recurrent ear infections may result in hearing problem and speech delay; prolonged hospitalization may cause transient developmental delay.
- Family history?
Why: e.g. developmental delay, genetic disorders, learning disabilities, stillbirths or deaths in infancy.
- Alcohol or Illicit drug use history in mother during pregnancy?
Questions your doctor may ask about related symptoms:
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse
your condition. These may include:
- Impulsive behavior, inattentiveness and hyperactivity?
Why: may suggest attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
- Poor social interaction and language delay in the child?
Why: e.g. poor eye contact, aloneness, difficulties relating to peers - may suggest autism as cause of developmental delay.
- Age when walking?
Why: e.g. if not walking by 18 months consider Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
» Next page: Types of Developmental problems
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