Child Development and Family Health Checkups

Starting when the child is six months old, these checkups serve the following purposes: detecting early signs of developmental or behavioral problems; identifying family health risks that may affect the child's development; and providing teachable moment opportunities to discuss with mothers and fathers the child's learning and coping style as well as pattern of development.

Click here to view or download the protocol for Child Development and Family Health Checkups.


The Healthy Steps services were originally developed as program requirements for use in the national evaluation phase of the program. In order to ensure the integrity of the evaluation, all sites needed to implement Healthy Steps in virtually the same manner. Because evaluation concerns will not affect new practices beginning Healthy Steps operations, these practices will have considerable flexibility in shaping their Healthy Steps programs. New practices should therefore use these protocols as guidance in their decision making.