Which type of doctor is best for a child with autism?

Which type of doctor is best for a child with autism?

Autism spectrum disorder or ASD affects children in many different ways. That’s why we say children are on the spectrum. Not only can symptoms vary from child to child, the severity of symptoms is wide-ranging as well.

This spectrum of symptoms often requires a variety of health professionals to treat. It’s not unusual for a child with autism to have a team of doctors and specialists working together to ensure they and their families have all the support they need.

This article will introduce you to some of the most common types of doctors who treat children with autism, how they differ, and what they share in common. The lines between them are not always clear.

TIP: To find the best autism specialists, you should get a referral from your child’s pediatrician or family doctor. If you want to search for doctors and other specialists yourself, there many resources online that can help. This article will also provide you with links to a few of them.

Let’s start with your primary healthcare provider

If you’re concerned about your child’s development, the natural thing to do is talk with your primary healthcare provider. Typically, children are screened for behavioral and developmental issues at 9, 18, and 30 months to ensure they’re reaching important milestones. Autism-specific screenings should also take place at 18 and 24 months.

However, a screening is not a diagnosis. If your primary healthcare provider has the right training, they can do an evaluation of our child and provide you with a diagnosis. If not, they should refer you to a specialist who can, such as a developmental-behavioral pediatrician, child neurologist, or child psychiatrist. Check out this 3-part parent’s guide for more details about the signs of autism, getting a diagnosis, and early intervention.

An autism diagnosis is the key to giving your child the right care and treatment, using your health insurance to cover costs, and providing your child and family the best opportunity for a bright future. 

Top 4 types of autism specialists you could be referred to

A referral to an autism specialist is usually based on a child’s symptoms. With that in mind, here are four of the most common types of doctors that can specialize in autism in children.

TIP: Be aware that many, but not all, of these types of doctors specialize in autism. If you’re contacting them without the help of your primary care health provider, it’s important to ask if their practice includes autism care to save yourself time and aggravation.

  • 1—Developmental-Behavioral Pediatricians

These are board-certified physicians who have sub-specialty training and certification in developmental-behavioral pediatrics. They’re highly trained and experienced in identifying and diagnosing a range of developmental and behavioral differences, like autism.

In addition to treating your child’s basic medical needs, they can also evaluate your child for autism, provide a diagnosis, and coordinate a specific treatment plan. The gold standard early intervention is ABA therapy.

The evaluation process includes taking a detailed history of your child, doing a medical exam, observing and talking to your child, asking how your child acts in a variety of settings, and seeking feedback from your child’s teachers or day care provider.

They’ve been described as “detectives” who look for syndromes that present at a young age. As such, they often lead autism clinics associated with hospitals.

  • 2—Clinical Psychologists

These professionals have earned a doctorate degree and are trained in the study of human behavior. They can have many different specialties. Those who specialize in child development are trained to administer and analyze various psychological tests and assessments that are used in diagnosing autism. They can also provide recommendations for treatment.

  • 3—Child Neurologists

Also known as Pediatric Neurologists, these doctors identify and treat disorders of the nervous system in children, like autism. The nervous system is the body’s communication network that controls intelligence, movement, senses, and basic functions.

Child Neurologists can provide a thorough diagnosis of your child and are in a position to help you better understand autism, especially the cognitive processing aspect. The goal of a neurological evaluation is to rule out any associated neurological disorders, such as sleeping difficulties or epilepsy.

  • 4—Child Psychiatrists

Child Psychiatrists are medical doctors or doctors of osteopathic medicine who specialize in the mental health diagnosis and treatment of children. They focus on a variety of mental health conditions, including behavioral, developmental, and emotional issues.

Many of these doctors can provide a comprehensive evaluation and diagnosis of your child that includes an assessment of their social skills, communication abilities, and behavioral patterns typical of autism. They tend to deal with children who have autism in addition to other mental health conditions, like attention deficit, anxiety, and depression.

How to find a doctor who specializes in autism care

As mentioned above, the easiest and best place to start is with your child’s primary healthcare provider. Pediatricians and family care doctors are in a prime position to recommend other doctors and specialists you can trust with the diagnosis and treatment of your child.

Other options for finding doctors include searching:

TIP: If you’re looking for an ABA therapy provider in your area, search for the best of the best at BHCOE.org. BHCOE is the only accrediting body for center-based ABA therapy providers. It’s accreditation process is both rigorous and comprehensive.

The Behavior Exchange is a Behavioral Health Center of Excellence® with the highest accreditation possible for an ABA therapy provider. You can find our centers (aka hives) in North Texas and the Boulder, Colorado, area. We’d love to answer your questions and provide the expert, caring, and fun support your child and family deserve. Get started today.

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Ashvina attended University of Bombay and graduated with a Bachelors of Commerce. She got her Montessori Diploma in 1985 and taught ever since. Ashvina came to TBE in January of 2016 as Admin Assistant. During the years she got the opportunity to learn and work in different departments such as HR, Finance, Office Manager and Executive Assistant. Last summer TBE bought billing in house and her current focus area is Revenue Cycle Management. She is detail oriented and enjoys working with people. Ashvina volunteers to deliver meals to seniors and local shelters on the weekend. She loves to spend time with her family and grandkids. Ashvina loves her job because she enjoys hearing different points of view, and she feels her contributions help fuel the direction of our company.

Working with children comes naturally to Angela. Her mom was a special education teacher for 30 years and often had Angela join her for Take Your Child to Work Day. And in high school, Angela spent every summer as the nanny for a little boy with an autism spectrum disorder. It was this experience where her passion for working with children with autism started to blossom.

From there, she went on to graduate from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Sciences. She learned about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in a non-normative development class and from that moment knew that ABA would be her life’s work.

Angela moved to the DFW area shortly after and began working at The Behavior Exchange as a therapist. She worked on her Master’s in Behavior Analysis at the same time. A year after graduating, she earned certification as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.

Now, as a Clinical Director at The Behavior Exchange, she brings a life-long passion to her work, holding a special place in her heart for children with limited language skills and working closely with families to develop healthy sleep habits.

Danielle’s passion for working with families is deeply personal and from the heart. Her younger brother has an autism spectrum disorder, and through their journey as a family, she found her purpose in life as an advocate for individuals with special needs.

After graduating from the University of North Texas with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, Danielle began volunteering at The Behavior Exchange. She saw passionate therapists, meaningful change for clients, and families with hope for the future. After a summer of volunteering, she officially joined the team as Director of Admissions and found her home with The Behavior Exchange family.

With her extensive experience working as a client advocate with insurance providers, Danielle perseveres to help individuals of all ages and abilities receive the services they need to reach their full potential. She feels truly honored by each and every family who entrusts The Behavior Exchange to be part of their journey and is committed to the organization’s core values, mission, and goal of being a beacon of hope for the community.

Adam has always had a passion for helping individuals of all ages thrive and reach their full potential. He’s also an enthusiastic musician, songwriter, leader, and devoted family man, who has been helping children and team members grow with The Behavior Exchange since 2010.

Prior to joining the team at The Behavior Exchange, Adam was a mortgage loan consultant and grad student, pursuing his master’s degree in Education at the University of North Texas. He graduated in 2013 and also earned a graduate academic certificate in Autism Intervention. The following year, after years as a Behavior Therapist and seeing first-hand the power of ABA and the meaningful impact it can have on children and their families, Adam became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. He then commenced from the Stagen Leadership Academy after completing the Integral Leadership Program (ILP), a 52-week practice-based program designed to develop executives serious about transforming themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

Adam is truly grateful to be a part of a dynamic, inspiring and compassionate team, and he’s dedicated to bettering the lives of all children and their families through the delivery of the highest quality of ABA services, while supporting the amazing team at The Behavior Exchange.

Soraya is from South Africa and moved to Texas in 1996. She graduated from The University of Texas and pursued a career, at that time, in Education. Soraya taught at a Montessori school for a few years and then took on a leadership role.

During her time in the education system, Soraya realized her passion was to assist children with special needs. So she joined The Behavior Exchange as a therapist, transitioned into a supervisory role in 2017, and a year and a half later, was promoted to Clinical Operations Manager.

She quickly learned the ins and outs of ABA operations and scheduling and successfully collaborates across departments to ensure The Behavior Exchange continues to provide quality services to clients and their families. She’s thankful to be part of such an amazing organization and excited to see what the future holds.

You could say Walter’s career started when he spent hours as a young child drawing superheroes and coloring maps. This passion, along with extraordinary swimming skills, landed him a full swimming scholarship at Texas Christian University, where he graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Graphics.

During the next 13 years, his design and art direction skills, conceptual-thinking abilities, and marketing-savvy know-how were honed at a few prestigious advertising and marketing agencies around the Dallas area. In the mid 2000s, he helped his wife Tammy Cline-Soza (founder and CEO of The Behavior Exchange) create a unique and concise brand for her new business. From logos and websites to uniforms, brand voice and visuals, Walter has been the main creative force for all things The Behavior Exchange.

Aside from giving birth to The Behavior Exchange brand, Walter is helping Tammy raise two amazing, beautiful children, River and Sierra. In his spare time (the two minutes he’s got per week), you can find Walter illustrating iconic landmarks of Dallas and Texas or looking around for this next open-water swim. Once he gets back in shape.

After 20 years of building The Behavior Exchange, literally from the ground up,
Tammy couldn’t be more proud of the team, culture, and organization that it has become.

As a family helping families, The Behavior Exchanges looks for opportunities that will make the biggest impact and produce life-changing outcomes – for clients, families, and even for team members. Tammy believes that if a team, a family, a community takes care of each other, the possibilities are endless and the relationships built along the way can make life more enriching and challenges easier to navigate. You could say her goal has been to build a kind of utopia full of support, love, and expertise that brings the best services possible to the community and ensures more families have access to those services.

Tammy and her family have dedicated their lives to the mission of The Behavior Exchange and continue to grow, learn, cultivate, challenge, support, and create better models for success. To that end, she is committed to her own leadership development and actively participates in advanced training, mentoring, and deep self-exploration on how to live out her purpose to love and support her family and help others reach their full potential. She takes her position very seriously and tries to serve as a channel for what the universe wants to come to fruition.

She also loves travel, gardening, being creative, MUSIC!, tennis, yoga, meditation, journaling, reading, being in nature, adventures, and more than anything, spending time with her husband Walter and their two beautiful children, River and Sierra.