Welcome to Montana Developmental Assessment Clinic
Our months of service are September through May only.
The Montana Developmental Assessment Clinic is a nonprofit whose mission is to provide high quality interdisciplinary evaluations for children with developmental delays, for whom there is diagnostic uncertainty. We strive to provide diagnostic clarification and treatment recommendations. The purpose of the clinic is to provide a high quality, interdisciplinary assessment of autism and related disabilities, with a team of professionals with expertise in different aspects of child development.
We serve children aged 18 months up to 12th birthday.
We do not do general neuropsychological assessments. A general neuropsychological evaluation looks at a broad spectrum of neurological function including cognition, academic achievement, attention, and mood. Most neuropsychological evaluations do not include a direct evaluation for autism. We also do not do evaluations that only evaluate cognition in a child who has an established developmental diagnosis.
Process of Evaluation at MtDAC
The process starts with a referral from your child’s primary health care provider. Please have them fax it to: 406-272-3410
Please allow up to three weeks for the referral to be reviewed.
After the referral is reviewed, the Program Manager will call the parent and collect information about you and the child, information releases, and insurance information.
There is an online form and questionnaire to complete that will be sent to parents.
Online video visit with Dr. Nicholson (you will need Google Meet)
If the child is aged four or older, a phone interview will be done to determine the child’s skills.
Clinic visit with child and parent, which includes an assessment of development/cognition, medical, speech therapy (and OT assessment, if appropriate), and an Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale. The clinic visits are on Friday and take three hours. We ask that no other children attend this appointment as it becomes very distracting to the tested child and we need parent participation for parts of the evaluation.
Feedback session by video soon thereafter with Dr. Nicholson
Sponsorship:
We are sponsored by STEP-inc (www.step-inc.org)
We conduct our clinics at U of Mary, Billings (www.umary.edu see Billings, MT satellite location) at 2590 Holman Avenue, Billings, MT 59102.
This clinic has been and continues to be a community effort. We have been informally supported by the entire Billings medical and developmental community.
Cost
Insurances, including Medicaid, usually pay for the MtDAC evaluation, but of course you may have to pay if you have not met your deductible. In general, the assessments cost between $1,500-$1,800.