Child Development Clinic 66 Clarence Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2000

"I cannot recommend this service highly enough. As might be the case for many families, we approached this service as a family struggling to cope with, and understand, our child but desperately wanting to help them. From the moment I contacted the clinic, I was handled with respect, compassion, terrific communication and efficacy. On the day of our appointment, our child felt welcomed and safe as soon as we arrived. It was a long day, with exhaustive levels of investigation and evaluation all under the one room, but my child was engaged by every member of staff at every point, right from the helpful and friendly staff at reception, to the very engaging psychologist, and all other members of the team. I was particularly appreciative of our paediatrician (Dr Yeoh) who took a lot of time to get to know our child. She was respectful, empathic and very thorough. She really took her time to understand our child. At the end of the day, we met with her again so she could pull together all of the pieces of information the team had gleaned (so sanity-saving to have this done all under the one roof). Her communication was clear, patient and thorough. She explained diagnoses very clearly and in a positive way. Our concerns were never trivialised and I can tell our child felt heard and seen. We had ample time to ask (a lot) of questions, even with a waiting room full of people outside. I have had to contact the clinic with questions since, and they have always promptly been dealt with. When we received the clinic's report (and we were advised there would be a wait for this), it arrived when we expected it and it was very comprehensive. It was pages of information about every aspect of our child's assessment which has proved a valuable resource for us as parents as well as our GP, and the other allied health practitioners our child is involved with. The report also contained a huge number of resources we could access to continue to learn and help our child. I had done my research and knew that getting an appointment with any developmental paediatrician involved a lengthy wait as obviously there are a lot of kids who need assessment, and it is so specialised, but this experience has been so positive for our family and our child. We have a pathway of understanding and treatment options that we did not know were possible. An outstanding wholistic service! So grateful!"

"Exorbitant costs and a big brother attitude towards communicating with patients. The initial appointment will cost you around $1600 with a Medicare rebate of $231.35. A revisit will set you back between $605-635 with a Medicare rebate between $67-$117. For a consultation they will charge between $405-$435 with a Medicare rebate between $67-$117. There is no provision for pensioners or a reduced rate commensurate to your child's situation. To communicate with them you will need to email their office. Their recorded phone message indicates they are too busy to deal with you and refers you to follow this process. When you attend your face-to-face appointment with the Paediatrician your head will spin at the pace of the consult. In this process you will be made to feel that you should be 'grateful' and you are encroaching on their busy schedule. As a returning patient you will be faced with long waiting periods for appointments, even if your child has started medication. There is no follow up in regard to medication and you will not be allowed to speak to the Paediatrician. You will need to go through the hoops of sending emails to reception, then be faced with long waiting periods, and if you 'secure' an appointment, you will be required to pay a hefty fee for this basic follow up health care. Honestly, the thing they do well is give you an assessment for your child, but unfortunately this is under cut by not having a holistic view of the child and their needs. They do not have the flexibility, strategies, availability, or variety of appointment types to meet your child's needs. They are only interested in writing reports. You will get an assessment and most likely a prescription for medication, then you are pretty much on your own. If you want to talk about anything to do with the medication your child has been prescribed, just forget it! To talk to the Paediatrican you will have to email the reception and then go through the waiting process. We were told we had to wait 8 months to see the Paediatrican about our child's prescription. It was only after jumping up and down (via email) that we were given an earlier appointment but told that we had to pay the fees listed above. We are on a pension. Really, as parents of children who need support, we need to demand and expect more from our health care providers. Surely somewhere included the $1500 fee and the $630 fee that we paid it would have been reasonable to expect to be able to talk to the Paediatrican about the medication they prescribed. This service is not up to scratch. It provides a false expectation of support. You will be better supported if you source out a Paediatrician who actually cares about you and your child. We would encourage you to look elsewhere. After we posted this, you can see below that they offered an apology, but this is just for your benefit. There is nothing sincere about it. The reality is that we have been emailing them for well over two weeks and they haven't bothered to resolve our complaint. Instead, they have made us jump through hoop after hoop. They have treated us like we don't matter. They say they contacted as if to infer that this makes what they have done ok. But the fact is they contacted us using an "unknown number" at a time convenient for them, they left a message saying that they had rang, and they did not leave a number to call them back. This means we have to email them again and again as they do not allow patients to ring and speak to reception. The numerous emails we sent to them were not answered. Our complaints and the questions we have raised have not been addressed by them. The response from the owner, Dr Yeoh, was to discontinue care for our child."

"Everyone we have come across at the clinic have been extremely professional and friendly - from the receptionist (both on the phone and when we arrived), to the paediatrician and the psychologist. We suspected our son had ADHD at the time and this a one-stop-shop for parents who wants to have everyone done in the one visit. We saw the paediatrician, psychologist and our son went through brain wave test and ability tests in the same morning. It is pricey but if you did everything separately, it may end up costing the same if not more, not to mention the time spent to going back and forth on multiple visits."

"I highly recommend the courteous and professional staff at Child Development Clinic. It is always daunting when investigating your child’s health and well-being. Child Development clinic was such an amazing facility in helping support our family get a diagnosis for our child. All the Developmental paediatricians, psychologists and staff were all so professional and comforting when interacting with our child. They provided valuable insight and helped us make sense of a complicated diagnosis. The reports received after our appointment were comprehensive and provided some fantastic links to resources that can be utilised to give further information for our child’s diagnosis. It’s a long day for the kids but the psychometric testing, face to face appointments with Drs and facilities were all amazing. Highly recommend to any parent looking to get some support and understanding for their child."

"A rip off of a joint. Total sham. I still don't know what they actually do. Some "brain mapping" and 1700 later and 3 months down the line still no report. Totally Unprofessional I had my 6 year old ASD with ADHD son visit this joint, they had no clue as they boast on their website. They didn't know how to deal with a child on spectrum and the staff appears to have never seen someone on spectrum. One would think that you would have strategies in place to deal with various kids walking through the door. My son was upset being there and they had no idea They were quick enough to take my money however 3 months down the line still no report until I reached out. Anyways , I would avoid this place completely especially if you are a parent of a child on spectrum. The amount is wait time , you would think that these are the epitome of some breakthrough information. Don't waste your time One of the most horrible experiences for my son and for us with zero outcome"