Improving Lives. Changing Futures.

Children’s Specialized Hospital (CSH) is the nation’s leading provider of inpatient and outpatient care for children from birth to 21 years of age facing special health challenges across the state of New Jersey and beyond.

Our outpatient locations in Bayonne, Clifton, East Brunswick, Eatontown, Egg Harbor Township, Hamilton, New Brunswick, Newark, Somerset, Toms River, Union and West Orange treat everything from chronic pain and complex physical disabilities like brain and spinal cord injuries, to a full scope of developmental, behavioral and mental health concerns.

Our pediatric specialists partner with families to personalize our many innovative therapies and medical treatments so each child can reach their full potential.

Therapy Services

• Audiology services provide comprehensive diagnostic evaluations for routine diagnostic, behavioral, and conventional audiometry as well as non-behavioral audiometric tests and auditory processing evaluations for children.

• Neuropsychology evaluations are typically conducted on children who have acquired a brain injury through physical trauma (i.e., TBI, concussion) or a medical condition that affects brain function. These comprehensive evaluations are used to identify levels of cognitive deficit caused by injury and gain an understanding of how the injury will affect learning, behavior, emotions and social participation in the future.

• Nutrition services utilize experienced pediatric dieticians who counsel children, adolescents and their parents on a variety of nutritional issues. These issues include weight management, failure to thrive, tube feeding adjustments, food allergies and special therapeutic diets such as those ordered for diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension.

• Occupational Therapy promotes functional independence for a child who is dealing with the effects of disease, injury, birth anomalies, disability, or developmental problems. The focus of therapy may include the prevention of malformations, the facilitation of normal development, the promotion of age-appropriate daily living skills, design, fabrication and application of splints, training for use of assistive technology devices and/or adaptation of the environment. Specific skills pediatric occupational therapy may focus on include: dressing, bathing, hygiene, feeding, meal preparation, negotiation through the environment, ability to recognize letters and numbers, and writing as well as any tasks that the child is required to complete during their day to be independent.

• Physical Therapy helps patients reach their full potential by minimizing impairments while promoting mobility and function for participation in their home and community. Our pediatric physical therapists are specialists in the unique needs of children, adolescents and young adults from birth through 21 years of age and they are experts in a variety of treatment interventions allowing them to individualize a plan of care to meet the unique needs of the child and family. Physical therapy evaluation and treatment may include: ongoing observation and analysis of the child’s functional abilities and struggles; identification of impairments; assessing needs for equipment and bracing and making appropriate referrals; provision of strategies and home activity suggestions to encourage mobility, increase strength and flexibility, improve balance and coordination, prevent deformities or further injury, overall wellness and fitness recommendations; and more.

• Psychology services can assist children with behavioral difficulties, panic disorders, social skill deficits, peer and sibling problems, trauma, abuse, adjustment problems, anxiety, depression and other mood disorders. Comprehensive assessments, including psycho-diagnostic evaluations, educational evaluations, and clinical assessments are done to clarify a child’s diagnosis. They are also done to assess cognitive, behavioral, social, emotional, academic, attention and executive functioning areas, determine strengths and weaknesses, and recommend effective interventions. Treatment is provided through individual play therapy, psychotherapy, behavior therapy, parent counseling, family therapy, group therapy, or a combination of these methods.

• Rehabilitation Technology uses a team approach to conduct a detailed evaluation of the patient regarding seating, positioning and mobility needs. The specialists in the Rehabilitation Technology Department work with patients currently using or in need of specialized equipment to enhance their strengths and abilities. By creating highly tailored specialized equipment, patients are able to participate to the best of their ability in family, school, community, employment and recreation activities. The team also works closely with the family and their insurance to secure coverage of cost of this high-tech, custom made equipment.

• Speech & Language Therapy evaluates a child’s ability to talk, speak clearly, communicate with others, understand common words, follow directions, eat and drink. Our speech therapists are familiar with the developmental milestones that are normally attained at each stage in a child’s life. They provide age-appropriate activities to improve speech, communication, and feeding skills, and are adept at encouraging and motivating patients to reach their goals.

Medical Services

• Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics evaluates and counsels children and families with a wide range of developmental conditions including: developmental delays, including language, fine, or gross motor challenges; developmental disabilities like Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), intellectual disability, and cerebral palsy; learning disabilities; externalizing disorders such as ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder; Tics, Tourette syndrome, and other habit disorders; and, challenges with activities of daily living, including feeding, complicated toilet-training (enuresis and encopresis) and sleep. Although children may already receive services through Early Intervention or their public school district, school-based evaluations typically do not make medical diagnoses such as autism or ADHD – these diagnoses usually require evaluation by a medical provider, such as a developmental pediatrician.

• Ortho Clinic is available for patients with complex physical disabilities where therapy and physiatry may not be enough. Dr. Alice Chu is onsite at our Union location twice a month to provide orthopedic surgery evaluations and evaluate those needs. Dr. Chu is uniquely trained in pediatric orthopedics and plastics hand surgery. Her specialties include: club foot, pediatric orthopedics/fracture, peripheral nerve, and upper extremity.

• Physiatry (Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation) specializes in the rehabilitation care and medical management of children with conditions that impact their neurologic, muscular and/or skeletal systems such as cerebral palsy, brain injury, spinal cord injury, muscular dystrophy, neuromuscular disorders, musculoskeletal conditions and chronic pain. Our physiatrists understand how cognitive and physical disabilities affect growth and development and they work with patients and families by leading a comprehensive rehabilitation team to develop and direct individualized treatment. Their main objectives are to restore or improve function (e.g., walking) and maximize quality of life (e.g., decrease pain).

• Psychiatry services treat a wide range of child and adolescent behavioral, emotional and psychiatric disorders with a special expertise in working with special needs children and adolescents. We follow a family-centered approach in conducting comprehensive assessments and development of an individual treatment plan.

• Special Needs Primary Care at CSH provides children with special health care needs, and their siblings, comprehensive care at two convenient locations. Our practice strives to address the developmental and medical needs of children through multidisciplinary family-centered care including social workers, patient care coordinators, behavioral health therapists, doctors and nurses. As a Special Needs Primary Care provider, we:

  • Manage sick and well visits for kids with special needs and their siblings
  • Establish goals and coordinate comprehensive care plans
  • Initiate testing and treatment
  • Collaborate with established care providers
  • Support wellness, function and healthy development for babies, children, teens and young adults