Home Visits by Healthy Specialists

Mothers and fathers often feel more comfortable voicing concerns about their children's behavior and development at home, and the home visits are timed to reach mothers and fathers and their children at predictable junctures in their developing relationships. The Healthy Steps Specialists can provide information on how to foster children's intellectual and emotional development.

During the national evaluation phase of the Healthy StepsSM Program, the first home visit took place soon after the newborn was discharged from the hospital, and home visits became more concentrated during the early toddler period. During early infancy, home visits focused on general health, nutrition, breast feeding, sleep, and strategies for comforting babies. As the child grew, safety issues were addressed, and attention during home visits shifts to issues of toddler autonomy and management of behavioral and developmental concerns, such as limit setting, early learning and stimulation, eating, and toilet training.

Click here to view or download the protocol for Home Visits.



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.