Psychology intake template: developmental concern

Standard CBT intakes don't sit well with developmental presentations. Below is a structure that lands better when the parent's question is 'what's going on' rather than 'help us with this skill'.

Section 1: presenting concern (parent voice)

Open with: 'Tell me, in your own words, what brought you in.' Resist the urge to interrupt with structured questions. The first three minutes of a developmental-concern intake are diagnostic in themselves.

Section 2: cross-context observation

• How does the concern present at home (with caregivers, with siblings, in routines)?
• How does it present at school / kinder (with peers, with teachers, in transitions)?
• How does it present in unstructured public settings (parks, family gatherings, supermarkets)?
• When did the parent first notice? What changed at that point?

Section 3: developmental history

Speech, motor, social milestones — date or approximate age. Sleep history. Feeding history. Any regressions, however brief. Any major medical events.

Section 4: family system

Family neurodevelopmental history — parents and siblings, formal and suspected. Family stress, recent or chronic. Parental separation status. Cultural and linguistic context.

Section 5: what the family wants

Diagnostic question? Therapeutic support? Both? Their hopes and worries about diagnosis. This is the section most clinicians under-use; it shapes everything that follows.