About Doctor Kate and the Team
Dr Kate Martin
Scope of Practice
Comprehensive neurodevelopmental assessment
Diagnostic assessment if appropriate
Helping families navigate services available to support their child including education and information resources
Strategies for managing the behaviours associated with a neurodevelopmental disorder
Area of Expertise
Neurodevelopmental disorders including ADHD and Autism
Paediatric sleep
Developmental assessments
Qualifications
Imperial College London Medical School – Graduated 1995 MBBS (Qualified as a Doctor)
University College London – Msc Clinical Paediatrics - Graduated 2005
University of Bath –MBA – Graduated 2015 – Distinction – Woman in Business Scholarship.
Certificate in Specialist Training Paediatric Neurodisability – 2007
Been working as a consultant in Paediatric neurodisability since 2007
Doctor Kate – The service
I am a Consultant Paediatrician with 25 years' experience and qualifications in Children’s Neurodevelopment. My area of expertise is neurodevelopmental disorders and helping you to understand how your child sees the world and functions within it. Neurodevelopment is the term used to describe the pathways that form in the brain as children experience the world and move through it. Everything we do and learn influences how these pathways form and work.
Children don’t come with a manual and being a parent is tough. Some developmental stages are tougher than others and sometimes we get lost as parents to know how best to help our children to be happy and achieve their potential.
When concerns are raised about a child’s development or behaviours, it can be tricky as a parent to unpick what is going on and to navigate the services available. The first step is often to understand if there is indeed a problem, and if so, to understand what this is and how to address it.
Doctor Kate is based in central Bath in a covid-secure building with good parking. Whilst we can see families from any area we very much prefer to see children who live and go to school within a 1 hour’s journey from Bath. This is because we have more expertise in the local services in these areas so can support you better. It is also because occasionally it may be appropriate to observe your child in school. We are not able to offer school visits out further than 1 hour from Bath.
Face to face appointments with Doctor Kate offers an experienced child developmental paediatrician who will gather information from you, school and any other source that you feel will help us to understand you child. We will use this information to gain clarity as to whether there is a problem, and if so, what is it and how can we improve the situation.
Whilst diagnoses are important in some situations, often just understanding how it feels to be your child and understanding what can be done to make their world more successful is all that is needed.
In some instances a diagnosis is important and Doctor Kate can work with you and your child's school to undertake diagnostic assessments for conditions such as ADHD and Autism. It is important to understand that neurodevelopmental disorders have strict diagnostic criteria and these have to be fulfilled in different settings. Thus it is not possible to undertake these assessments without working with other professionals who already know your child. Doctor Kate recognises that you are an expert in your child and together we can use all this information to build a picture of your childs’ neurodevelopmental profile.
It is also important to understand that many assessments do not result in a diagnosis. The diagnostic process can however provide a useful profile of your child’s strengths and areas of challenge to target interventions. Neurodevelopmental disorders are on a spectrum so just because your child doesn’t reach the diagnostic threshold it doesn’t mean they don’t have features of that condition. Addressing these features can have huge benefits for your child.
Who am I?
I have over 25 years' paediatric experience, having trained to be a Doctor at Imperial College London before working and gaining expertise in London. I was fortunate enough to train at Great Ormond Street Hospital and work in other London specialist centres (Hammersmith Hospital, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Royal Free Hospital). I completed a Masters in Child Health at University College London to embed my general paediatric expertise with my neurodevelopmental skills, allowing me to look holistically at children and young people.
I was one of the first Consultant Paediatricians in the UK to complete the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Specialist Training in Neurodisability. This qualification recognises the specific skills I have in this field.
Almost 15 years ago I moved to Bath to develop and expand the neurodevelopmental service in Bath and Wiltshire, working with some exceptional colleagues. I still work locally within the community paediatric service in Wiltshire with these colleagues. I get great joy from meeting families and understanding them and their children. I feel it is a great privilege to interact with families in this way and strive to help families enjoy being together whilst achieving their best potential.
Who else might you see?
Neurodevelopmental Paediatricians work with a team of highly specialised professionals with who together can help to understand your child’s profile and link together any areas that need additional understanding and strategies to support your child. By combining these fields of expertise we can provide you with a joined-up understanding of how your child sees the world and functions within it, and provide joined up ideas of how best to support your child. You will have a first appointment with Doctor Kate to formulate which assessments need to be undertaken and which other professionals you may also need to see. By working together within one organisation we can discuss our findings and how they relate to each other to provide a unified assessment and report with clear next steps.