Developmental Paed

Has anyone been to see one of these? if so what do they do?

Our GP has referred us because Spencer is a little behind where he should be, I am in agreement with this as he seems to even be behind babies who are a month younger than him. I know they all develop differently but just general observation of milestones, and also he was outside the age range for sitting by the time he did it, he is still way off crawling and his language is behind as well, he still only makes random noises he doesn't really try to make real sounds except sometimes making ma and mum noises but that's maybe once or twice a day.
Doc said could be month or two before appointment and if Spencer has caught up by then then we may cancel the appointment but just curious as to what they do.

No part of the reason for the referal is because it takes so long to get an appointment and the gp wanted us in the system now. The gp also wants to see him before the paed appointment and then the paed appointment might be cancelled if the gp is happy with his progress. The other thing is that Spencer has congenital nystagmus and the gp is worried this may be affecting his development.

I don't know anything about congenital nystagmus, but both my gremlins were fairly slow developers initially, they didn't sit unaided till 8 months. They crawled at 10 which is apparently average and then walked at 13 1/2 so they did catch up, altho their language development is still a bit behind IMO.
Good luck with the developmental paed, will be interesting to hear what he/she says. I know Fiona S had an appt with a paed re: Elle's development so she might be able to give you some ideas what to expect.

Thanks Fiona.

The nystagmus might not have anything to do with it, we do see an eye specialist and he is happy that Spencer can see just fine, as am I, but he does always ask about his general development as the eye condition can be caused by neurological problems. At this stage because his eyes look as though they are formed normally and his sight also seems to be normal they aren't doing any further tests just seeing him every three months to keep and eye on it....lol and also because any tests such as MRI's or CT scans require him to have a general so at this stage the benefit of the having the scan is out weighed by having to have the general, but if he is also considered to have developmental problems than that scale might tip the other way.
I will just say here that I don't think that that is the case and neither does the eye specialist or the gp but everyone is just being cautious. I would much prefer a wasted appointment with the paed than to not bother and then find there are problems further down the track that could have been helped if he had been seen sooner.
I was more just curious as to what a developmental paed would do and what they would be looking for. The gp checked him over yesterday and we went through a whole list of things a couple of weeks ago, not sure what else paed could do really.