Over the course of your child’s life, you will most likely see a variety of doctors, specialists, and therapists.
To help you keep track of who you might be seeing, or find a specialty that might help with your child’s condition, we created a list of health care specialties and therapies you might encounter on your way.
- Academic Language Therapy: Teaches children strategies and works through specific exercises to improve reading or writing. A Certified Academic Language therapist (CALT) generally works with children with learning differences.
- Applied Behavior Analysis: A process of both working with children to improve behaviors and helping parents create at-home strategies for supporting positive behavior.
- Aquatic Therapy: See Water Therapy.
- Art Therapy: Uses art activities and the creative process as therapy techniques to help improve a child’s social, emotional, and mental well-being.
- Audiology: A medical specialty focused on hearing.
- Cardiology: A medical specialty focused on the heart and circulation.
- Case Manager: In a health care setting, a case manager is a person assigned to help you navigate a complicated medical situation. This might be a hospital or clinic employee, a state employee, or an employee of your insurance company. Case managers can have different roles depending on where they are working.
- Certified Nurses Aide (CNA): A CNA might work in a hospital, a home health care setting, a rehab facility, or a group living facility. They often help patients with activities like getting dressed, eating, changing diapers or bedpans, bathing, or getting in and out of bed.
- Chaplain or Spiritual Services: Often found at the hospital, chaplain and spiritual services focus on helping families, adults, and children cope with spiritual challenges and questions.
- Child Life Specialist: A trained medical professional with expertise in helping children and their families cope with life’s most challenging events. Most often, they work in hospitals, but can also be found in some doctor’s offices, hospice camps, or schools.
- Chiropractic: A specialty focused on physically moving and aligning the spine.
- Craniofacial Therapy: A set of manual techniques and exercises designed to improve the movement and function of the head, neck, face, and jaw (or TMJ) joint.
- Critical Care Medicine (or Intensive Care Medicine): A type of medicine focused on life-threatening conditions and situations where a patient’s organs need extra support and monitoring by machines and more doctors and nurses.
- Dentistry: A medical specialty focused on the health of teeth and gums.
- Dermatology: A medical specialty focused on skin.
- Diet Therapy: A therapy that helps create eating plans that help address medical conditions. Primarily practiced by Licensed Dietitians.
- Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT): A medical specialty (usually a specialist) focusing on the ears, nose, and throat.
- Educational Psychologist: A professional who works with parents, teachers, and children to find out about any learning problems, recommend therapies and in-classroom tools, or identify a child’s unmet emotional needs. They might work in a school setting or in private practice.
- Endocrinology: A medical specialty focused on the glands, such as the thyroid gland, lymph nodes, spleen, and liver, and the hormones they produce.
- Family Practice: General medical specialty, often your main or primary care doctor. Family practice doctors usually study both internal and pediatric medicine; they work with both adults and children on a range of medical issues.
- Gastroenterology: A medical specialty focused on the digestive system (esophagus, stomach, and intestines). Also referred to as a “GI” doctor.
- Genetics: A medical specialty that focuses on genes. A geneticist will often test to see if the cause of a condition is something inherited, or they might try to see if there is something in a person’s inherited DNA code that explains their condition.
- Gynecology: A medical specialty focused on the female reproductive system.
- Hematology: A medical specialty focused on blood.
- Hippotherapy (or Equine Therapy): Uses horses and horseback riding as a tool for a combination of therapies, including occupational, physical, and emotional or behavioral therapy.
- Hospice: End-of-life medical care that is focused on making a patient more comfortable, rather than focusing on a cure. Can be administered in the home.
- Hospital Medicine: A medical specialty dealing with the care of patients who need to visit the hospital. The hospitalist often coordinates all care when a person is in the hospital.
- Immunology: A medical specialty focused on the body's reaction to dealing with illness or disease from bacteria and viruses.
- Intensive Care Medicine: See Critical Care Medicine.
- Internal Medicine: A medical specialty focused on diseases that involve multiple systems of the body. An internal medicine specialist is often a main or primary care provider who only works with adults rather than children.
- Kinesiology: The study of how the body moves.
- Music Therapy: Uses music with therapy techniques to help improve a child’s social, emotional, and mental well being.
- Neonatology: A medical specialty focused on newborn infants who are premature, have a disability, or have special health care needs.
- Nephrology: A medical specialty focused on kidneys and the urinary tract.
- Neurology: A medical specialty focused on the brain and nervous system.
- Neurosurgery: A medical specialty focused on operating on the brain and nervous system.
- Nurse: A registered nurse (R.N.) is trained to help patients reduce pain and make a plan for wellness. In a hospital setting, nurses often offer minute-to-minute patient care, medication, and monitoring. In private practice, nurses often help doctors by talking to patients about their conditions, taking emergency calls, performing tests, giving medication, or giving vaccines.
- Nurse Practitioner (NP): A nurse who has gotten a Ph.D. or a special license to be able to diagnose, recommend treatment for medical conditions, order lab tests, and write prescriptions. A nurse practitioner could have a private practice or work under a doctor’s supervision.
- Nutrition Therapy: Therapy focused on creating eating plans designed for healthy eating or to address medical conditions. Both nutritionists and dietitians practice this.
- Obstetrics: A medical specialty focused on prenatal care and childbirth.
- Occupational Therapy (OT): Therapy designed to help a child perform the activities needed for a meaningful everyday life. Some areas addressed by occupational therapy might include: eating and eating a variety of foods; organizing and coping with what they hear, see, smell, and feel in the world around them; body movement; or life skills.
- Oncology: A medical specialty focused on treating cancer.
- Ophthalmology: A medical specialty focused on eyes and vision.
- Orthodontia: A medical specialty focused on correcting the placement and alignment of the teeth and jaw, often through the use of braces on the teeth.
- Orthopedics: A medical specialty focused on bones and joints.
- Orthotics: A medical specialty focused on supporting weak or ineffective joints and muscles using special mechanical equipment.
- Osteopathy: A branch of medicine that focuses on preventive medicine and comprehensive care. Although different from an M.D., many osteopaths act as main or primary care doctors.
- Otolaryngology: See Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT).
- Palliative Care: Medical care that is focused on making a patient comfortable rather than focusing on a cure. Unlike most hospice programs, palliative care might not have a time limit attached to it, and it is not only for end-of-life.
- Pediatrics: A medical specialty focusing on children. Any other specialty with "pediatric" in the title works specifically with children too.
- Periodontist: A dental specialist who only focuses on the health of the gums.
- Perinatology: A special area of obstetrics (prenatal care) concerned with the care of the fetus and complicated, high-risk pregnancies.
- Physical Therapy (PT): A therapy using specific movement, equipment, and exercises to help improve or regain physical abilities.
- Physician Assistant: A medical professional who is licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of a doctor.
- Play Therapy: A therapy that helps children reduce anxieties and manage emotions by expressing feelings through guided play.
- Podiatry: A medical specialty focused on feet.
- Psychology: A specialty that focuses on diagnosing mental health conditions, providing talk therapy (psychotherapy), and creating therapy plans for mental wellness. Psychologists cannot prescribe medication.
- Psychiatry: A medical specialty that focuses on mental wellness. Psychiatrists can recommend or offer therapy plans, and they can prescribe medication.
- Pulmonology (or Pneumology or Respiratory Medicine): A medical specialty focused on the lungs and other organs involved with breathing.
- Radiology: A medical specialty that uses diagnostic imaging technology – such as X-rays, MRI’s, or ultrasounds – and uses radiation technology to treat disease.
- Respiratory Therapy: A therapy designed to improve how the heart and lungs work.
- Rheumatology: A medical specialty focused on joints and muscles.
- Social Worker: A licensed professional who gives help and advice as well as emotional support with social issues. A social worker can link you to community services or advocate for you in challenging situations; their roles vary based on the setting.
- Speech Therapy: A therapy designed to improve the ability to communicate, particularly through speech.
- Surgeon: A medical doctor who specializes in performing operations.
- Urology: A medical specialty focused on the urinary tract and male reproductive system.
- Vision Therapy: A set of exercises used to improve vision skills such as eye movement control and eye coordination.
- Water Therapy: Water-based treatments or exercises done for relaxation, physical therapy, or fitness.
