Kennedy Krieger’s patient care programs offer an interdisciplinary treatment approach tailored to the individual needs of each child, throughout all stages of care.
Highly trained professionals from various disciplines and departments collaborate to design treatment plans specific to each patient's needs.
In addition to our neurobehavioral, rehabilitation, and pediatric feeding disorders inpatient units, we offer more than 55 outpatient clinics, along with several home and community programs.
- Kennedy Krieger Institute uses an interdisciplinary approach to treatment with many outstanding professionals working together to provide comprehensive patient care that incorporates multiple fields, including, but not limited to: audiology, behavioral psychology, child life and therapeutic recreation, neuropsychology, nursing, nutrition, occupational and physical therapies, social work, special education, and speech/language pathology.
- Kennedy Krieger is home to the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury (ICSCI), the world's first facility focused on researching and treating chronic spinal cord injuries and paralysis. While most other spinal cord programs concentrate on helping individuals learn to compensate for injuries believed to be permanent, the spinal cord injury center relies on an innovative treatment philosophy known as activity-based recovery to actually promote recovery of function, even in patients whose injuries occurred years ago.
- The success of Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Feeding Disorders Program can be attributed to its interdisciplinary combination of medical expertise in gastroenterology, behavioral psychology, nutrition, occupational therapy, nursing and social work to develop successful treatment programs that continue in the home, school and community. The Pediatric Feeding Disorders Continuum of Care transitions patients from the most intensive inpatient program, to a daily program, and then to a less intensive weekly outpatient clinic.
- Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Genetic Muscle Disorders provides expert clinical care to children and adults with muscle disorders such as muscular dystrophy and congenital myopathy in the Baltimore-Washington region and across the nation. The center offers leading research programs both in the clinical and laboratory setting.
- Through its inpatient Neurobehavioral Unit, Kennedy Krieger is leading the way in treating children with developmental disabilities and severe behavioral problems, who have not had success with community-based treatment. Continuing services on an outpatient level enables individuals to successfully transition back into their homes, schools and communities.
- The Institute operates one of the most successful pediatric rehabilitation programs in the world. Kennedy Krieger's Rehabilitation Continuum of Care helps children recovering from strokes, traumatic brain injury and orthopedic surgery learn to participate as fully as possible in home, school and community life.
- Autism is now the second most common developmental disability, affecting as many as 1 in 68 children. The Center for Autism Services, Science and Innovation (CASSI™, formerly known as the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, or CARD) at Kennedy Krieger Institute is a multi-faceted, multidisciplinary program that combines research, assessment, therapeutic, community outreach and training. CASSI endorses a flexible treatment approach, adjusting the core set of methods used and goals of intervention to meet the needs of each child and his or her family. CASSI is comprised of three primary programs: its REACH research component, named one of eight national centers for autism; a clinical program providing comprehensive assessments, diagnosis and treatment plans; and the Achievements day therapy program, which serves children between the ages of 2 and 5 years, 11 months.
- Children with rare genetic disorders come from around the world to be treated by physicians and other specialists from Kennedy Krieger’s highly specialized Neurogenetics Program. This team offers diagnosis and treatment of peroxisomal disorders such as Adrenoleukodystrophy and Zellweger syndrome.