The department started functioning in 2007. Services started as a weekly outpatient clinic for children with developmental and psychological disorders, which served as an extension of the Child Guidance Clinic at the Department of Pediatrics at the Institute of Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode. The clinic functioned from the old RCH building in the Govt. The Medical College campus remained unused after the winding up of the urban RCH program. From 2008 onwards, the CDS expanded with the services of a multidisciplinary team comprising a clinical psychologist, speech therapist, early intervention therapist and special educator with funds from the NRHM. Back then, the CDS was the only centre in the erstwhile Malabar area to provide comprehensive care to children with developmental and psychological disorders through a multidisciplinary team.
Over the years, the CDS has developed into a referral centre for children with developmental and psychological disorders. This is the only centre in the Govt. sector in north Kerala to provide comprehensive multidisciplinary care to children with developmental disabilities and psychological disorders. The staffs include a paediatrician, psychiatrist, medical officer, clinical psychologist, early intervention therapist, speech therapist, audiologist, occupation therapist, special educator and an attendee. In addition to the CDS staff, faculty from the departments of psychiatric social work, clinical psychology and psychiatry are also involved in organizing the outpatient clinics of the CDS. The CDS functions in collaboration with the department of paediatrics in the Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode, and get support from the other departments in the Medical College for speciality services.
IMHANS is the pioneer institute in Kerala to introduce the Postgraduate Diploma in Early Intervention during the academic year 2025-26. The course is affiliated with the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) and has an intake of 8 students per year, also recognized by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). The course is developed as a one-year full-time program with extensive clinical and theoretical inputs to acquire the necessary skills in the area of neurobiology of childhood disability, normal and abnormal child development, disability prevention, early detection, therapeutic intervention, like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, play therapy, group therapy, family education, and counselling etc.