A hospital-based community paediatric unit.

Children with multiple handicaps often require the services of a team of professionals to ensure that they receive a comprehensive assessment. It is essential that the information derived from this assessment is conveyed accurately to the child's parents in language that they understand. It is also important that a member of the assessment team is made responsible for seeing that the recommendations made for the child's future are actually carried out. On hundred and twenty-nine children referred for assessment of developmental delay were found to have multiple intellectual, physical and social problems needing a team approach to their assessment, and the mobilization of a variety of community resources to provide their ongoing care.