Neurologists will offer expanded assessments

Children's is expanding its neurological assessment services for patients and their families at the hospital's Dallas campus.

The service is led by neurologist Dr. Patricia Evans and Mary Ann Morris, Ph.D., a diagnostician and nationally recognized leader in childhood special education.

Dr. Evans trained in cognitive development at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and specialized in autism-spectrum disorders (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other learning disabilities. She is an associate professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Morris spent 20 years at the Winston School in Dallas as the director of diagnostics, an educational diagnostician and as a learning disabilities specialist. An adjunct professor at the University Of North Texas College Of Educational Psychology, she is deeply connected with the community and to the available resources for children with special needs.

Every day a different specialty

The approach will be multidisciplinary and comprehensive, with certain days of the week devoted to different suspected diagnoses.

On Mondays, Neurology services will see four patients with suspected ASD for a full day of assessments, including appointments with Dr. Evans and Morris.

Tuesdays will be set aside for children with cognitive delays and special needs who may not fit any particular category of neurologic deficit but who are experiencing a wide variety of processing delays.

On Wednesday afternoons, clinicians will see children with traumatic brain injury — the first service of its kind at Children's. Dr. Evans envisions this afternoon will be dedicated to assessments by Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, by neurosurgeons, by Dr. Steve Kerney from the Brain Health Center at Children's, Morris and physicians from Critical Care.

Neurology also is working closely with the Dallas Independent School District, particularly the district's homeless and immigrant childhood populations, who have disproportionately high levels of exposure to traumatic brain injury.

On Thursdays, Neurology will see up to four new patients with ADHD and/or learning disabilities.

On any given day patients may be seen by a full team of neurologists led by Dr. Evans and Morris along with occupational, physical and speech therapists.

"The Neurology department at Children's is very excited about the development of these neurodevelopmental services and feels they represent a significant way to provide coordinated services to many children," Dr. Evans said.