Special Infant Clinic is a multidisciplinary screening clinic for infants born prematurely (before 30 weeks gestational age) or infants who were very ill during their stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).  Special Infant Clinic is one of the 24 Neonatal Follow-Up Clinics in the province of Ontario. Infants are referred to Special Infant Clinic at their discharge from NICU at Kingston General Hospital.

The Special Infant Clinic team includes a:

• Neonatologist
• Occupational Therapist
• Physiotherapist
• Speech and Language Pathologist (starting when the child is 12 months of age).

Infants are seen in Special Infant Clinic at regular intervals to monitor their physical, cognitive, social, language and learning development. Infants and their families are seen as early as 6 weeks corrected age, and are followed regularly up until the age of 3 years.   Additional visits to Special Infant Clinic may be scheduled as required.

The purpose of each visit to Special Infant Clinic is to monitor how an infant is developing and provide support to families of high risk infants. Suggestions of activities to work on at home may be provided. As well, referrals for appropriate diagnosis or developmental intervention can be made if concerns regarding a child’s development do arise.

With ongoing monitoring, coaching and partnerships with early intervention agencies, Special Infant Clinic’s goal is to promote the optimal outcome of high risk infants.