- Ayati Centre
- Services we offerGrowth and Development
Growth Monitoring
Your child’s weight, height or length and head circumference will be measured by our friendly nursing staff at each visit.
They will plot these in the standard growth charts in the Child Health Development Record and interpret your child’s growth parameters and advise on feeding and exercise.
If your child is diagnosed with certain specific conditions such as Down Syndrome, Prader Willi Syndrome, Turner Syndrome and some other conditions we will use other standard charts to monitor your child’s growth. If you need further clarifications, please speak to your doctor or the nursing staff.
Newborn and Early Infancy Services
If your newborn or infant has any early developmental concerns or if your baby was at risk for developmental delays due to birth-related complications, they will be referred to our center for regular growth and developmental monitoring.
Our nursing staff is there to support you with breastfeeding advices and give your tips on early infant stimulation.
Please speak to them for more details.
Growth and Feeding
If there are any concerns regarding baby’s growth the Paediatricians will organize necessary investigations and the work-up. The nurses will observe feeding techniques and provide necessary guidance.
If required the nursing officers will insert the nasogastric tube for your infant at the center. If there are more concerns we will seek help from our feeding team.
Developmental Assessments and Interventions
A paediatrician will gather information about your child’s birth, your family and the present developmental skills. Remember to bring your birth records and any other medical or health related documents to the clinics including all investigation reports. The paediatrician will see your child with a team of other clinicians including a speech therapist, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist.
They will conduct several assessments including a general developmental assessment, a motor skills assessment and a language and communication assessment. All baby will also undergo general paediatric and a neurological evaluation.
Your baby will be enlisted to undergo a hearing assessment if it is not yet already done and if any investigations are needed those will be organized. Your baby will be referred for an assessment by the Ophthalmologist. A detailed visual behavior assessment will be conducted by one of our staff to evaluate for evidence of cortico-visual impairment.
All infants referred to Ayati will be enrolled in an early intervention programm conducted by a multidisciplinary team of professionals. They will demonstrate to you how your family can provide a safe and loving environment for your baby. They will show you how to provide visual, auditory, tactile and other sensory stimuli with adequate challenges for learning cognitive, communication, motor and social-emotional skills in a responsive manner.
Speak to your clinical team for more information on early intervention and access our resources to learn how to support your infant.
All infants enrolled at Ayati will undergo formal developmental assessments at regular times points. During the first 12-24 months they will all undergo
- GMA (General Movement Assessment)
- HINE (Hammersmith Infant Neurological Evaluation)
- AIMS (Alberta Infant Motor Scale)
- Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Developmental assessment III
Arriving at a diagnosis
The dedicated and skilled professionals in our team will do complete evaluations of your infant to arrive at a diagnosis at all possible times.
They will perform complete history taking, conduct physical examinations, carry out objective measurements, do full investigations (some of these investigations may be done at other hospitals or specialized facilities), and meet with the multidisciplinary team including a Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, Child Psychiatrist and a Clinical Geneticist.
Based on the possible diagnosis your child may need long-term follow-up with other teams providing services together with the child development services.
At two years of age, we will consider discontinuing services for your child if she/ he has achieved the developmental requirements or decide on some key services for some of the identified areas of development.
The dedicated and skilled professionals in our team will do complete evaluations of your infant to arrive at a diagnosis at all possible times.
They will perform complete history taking, conduct physical examinations, carry out objective measurements, do full investigations (some of these investigations may be done at other hospitals or specialized facilities), and meet with the multidisciplinary team including a Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, Child Psychiatrist and a Clinical Geneticist.
Based on the possible diagnosis your child may need long-term follow-up with other teams providing services together with the child development services.
At two years of age, we will consider discontinuing services for your child if she/ he has achieved the developmental requirements or decide on some key services for some of the identified areas of development.
Other specific conditions
Syndromic conditions
If there are any reasons to suspect genetic or other syndromes with external features or a family history we will take the necessary steps to evaluate the cause and refer you for genetic counseling.
We will provide training for your family on providing developmental support through the multi-disciplinary approach on how to bring about the best potential of your child. We have family support groups for some genetic syndromes. Please speak to our nursing staff on how to join a family support group.
Some of the syndromes that we presently have family support groups are
- Down Syndrome parent group
- Fragile X syndrome family group
Cerebral palsy and other neuromuscular disorders
If your child has difficulty in mobilizing or if there is a gross motor delay our Paediatric team will do an extensive evaluation of medical and developmental needs together with the interdisciplinary inputs.
Our Paediatric Neurologist will evaluate all neurological aspects of your child and may request for an EEG (a strip to evaluate brain functions), EMG (an assessment of muscle functions) or scanning of the brain.
Your child will undergo necessary assessments in motor, language and communication, learning and fine motor and activities of daily living. We might request for a complete gait analysis, feeding assessment, cortico visual assessment, speech and language evaluation, fine motor assessment and a learning assessment based on the needs of the child.
The Ayati center is a pioneer in developing the Cerebral Palsy Register in Sri Lanka. Please speak to the front desk on how to join this register.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
We have infants from few months to young adults in the autism spectrum disorder. The developmental team provide support for these young children by conducting formal assessments and planning service delivery. Parent-mediated interventions and monitoring through tele-therapy is an innovative approach adopted by the Ayati team. Children with ASD will be triaged according to their strengths and difficulties by a team of clinicians.
They will be directed for language and communication, activities of daily living, learning services at Ayati. There will be many opportunities for these children to attend social groups, play groups, school readiness and alternative augmentative communication.
The medical team will review them regularly for any other interventions or assessments.
Learning Disabilities
All children referred by schools for learning difficulties will undergo a battery of assessments by the Paediatric team and the other clinicians. All children will be referred for a complete psychology assessment by a Child developmental psychologist and team of clinical psychologists.
They will be referred for hearing and vision assessments and blood investigations. Detailed paediatric assessments will be undertaken. Extensive language assessments and a complete dyslexia screening will be conducted in Sinhala and Tamil languages if required. The team will undertake communication with school authorities for school entry, accommodations, examinations etc.
We do understand there are children presenting with many other conditions. If you have a child with a developmental delay or any concern in development, please do not hesitate to contact us and get an appointment to meet with us.
Please remember to bring the CHDR, all medical records and school textbooks and exercise books with you to the clinic. The developmental assessments are done strictly with appointments. So please make your appointments.
