Dr Sameena Shakoor, Paediatrics

Dr Sameena Shakoor has been working in the west Kent area in the NHS and privately since 1998, when she took up her Consultant Paediatrics post.

She now works for NHS Kent and Medway as a Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children and as a Staff Bank Consultant Community Paediatrician for Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.

She has assessed and diagnosed many hundreds of children with neurodevelopmental presentations, neurodiversity, behavioural/emotional presentations to assess them for possible underlying causes including autism spectrum disorders and attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorder.

Dr Shakoor has received specialist training, including the DISCO and ADOS for ASD assessments, and the Griffiths Mental Developmental Scales assessment for assessing the development of young children.

Her assessments/diagnoses meet NICE, NHS and local education authority standards and have been accepted by the NHS and Kent County Council and local authorities previously, although she recommends this is checked in individual cases and areas.

Dr Shakoor can initiate and oversee medical treatment for attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorder, in accordance with NICE guidelines.

Clinical interests

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Autism spectrum disorders
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Emotional and behavioural problems in children and young people
• Developmental delay/impairment
• Paediatric neurodisability
• Community paediatrics.

Some of the principal treatments carried out by Dr Sameena Shakoor include:

• Attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder/condition
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Physical, educational, emotional and behavioural paediatrics.

 

Pssible developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD) or dyspraxia

Dr Shakoor can assess for possible dyspraxia (also known as developmental co-ordination disorder or DCD).

She advises requesting an occupational therapist or physiotherapist to do a standardised assessment of your child's motor skills - for example the Movement ABC assessment - first. She would then examine your child to ensure there is no underlying neurological reason for any difficulties with motor planning, balance and coordination. She will then assess if criteria for dyspraxia/developmental co-ordination disorder are met to confirm a medical diagnosis.

Dr Shakoor also advises seeing a speech and language therapist first with any concerns about a child's speech and language. She would see them after that, if required, to rule out a neurodevelopmental cause.

 

Possible anxiety/depression

Many children with possible neurodiversity can present with anxiety or low self esteem. Dr Shakoor is a neurodevelopmental paediatrician, and can assess for a neurodevelopmental disorder to see if this is the underlying reason for a mood problem such as anxiety or depression.

She not only sees children with just mood disorders, and as part of her assessment can assess for depression and anxiety. However, Dr Shakoor would not provide medication just for these conditions; that would be done by a child psychiatrist.

Dr Shakoor would not provide therapeutic intervention for mood disorders such as talking therapies. This would require a child psychologist — a trained therapist for talking therapeutic interventions for mood disorders.

 

Possible yslexia/learning problems

Dr Shakoor does not do assessments for dyslexia; that would be done by a specialist teacher or educational psychologist who has specific training in assessing for cognitive, processing and/or learning disorders.

Qualifications

• MA in Physiological Sciences, Oxford University Medical School, 1983
• MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, London, University College Hospital London, 1986

Professional memberships

• MRCP Membership of Royal College of Physicians
• Fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (FRCPCH)
• British Academy of Childhood Disability (BACD)
• British Association of Community Child Health (BACCH)
• Member of The Royal Society of Medicine

 

Professional leadership

Dr Shakoor was NHS Clinical Director of Community Paediatrics in north and west Kent 2008-2013.

Research and publications

Measles vaccination and antibody response in autism spectrum disorders, Gillian Baird et al, Archives of Diseases in Childhood, 2008.

 

Current NHS posts

• Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children for NHS Kent and Medway
• Consultant Community Paediatrician, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust.