Early Childhood Systems Building / Impact Center

Engaging Families to Support Early Childhood Development in the Health Center Exam Room and Beyond: CDC’s FREE “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” Resources Can Help

August 8, 2024

This webinar focuses on how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s free “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” resources can help health center and early childhood professionals engage families in early childhood developmental monitoring.

Families play an essential role in their children’s development. When health centers share information with families through engaged developmental monitoring, it can enhance their efforts to improve screenings, identify delays and disabilities, and encourage families to follow up when referred to services. To support these efforts, this webinar spotlights the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program and its free resources to help providers and staff engage and empower families as critical partners in developmental monitoring.

The webinar is tailored for federally qualified health centers, but also beneficial for a broad array of professionals, including clinicians, support staff, administrators, leadership, and anyone who interacts with, or supports programs for, young children and their families. Webinar learning objectives include:

Recognize the critical role that families play in monitoring and supporting their child’s development.
Understand how engaging families in monitoring as part of ongoing developmental surveillance complements developmental screening.
Describe how CDC’s free “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” resources can help engage families in developmental monitoring in a simple and effective way.
Identify strategies health centers can implement to engage families and build early childhood development expertise into care teams.

This webinar was hosted by the CDC and Early Childhood Developmental Health Systems (ECDHS): Evidence to Impact Center.

Key Takeaways

CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” program helps improve the early identification of developmental delays and disabilities by promoting family-engaged developmental monitoring and screening from ages 2-months through 5-years.
- Developmental disabilities are common, affecting 1 in 6 children.
- Developmental monitoring combined with screening identifies more children with possible delays than either strategy on its own.
- Early identification can lead to early intervention, and when children and families get the support they need, outcomes improve.
Community health centers can effectively implement family-engaged developmental monitoring and screening in numerous ways:
- Build trust with families by regularly talking about child development, asking and answering questions, and providing anticipatory guidance.
- Listen carefully, as developmental delays and disabilities can be hard to identify, and parents’ and early childhood professionals’ concerns are usually substantiated.
- Follow recommendations for developmental surveillance and screening and take action if a milestone is missed.
- Refer families early for further evaluation and early intervention services, and follow-up to provide ongoing support.
- Consider how various staff can share resources and reinforce messaging with families, including physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, medical assistants, WIC staff, community health workers, family support workers, health educators, and home visitors.
“Learn the Signs. Act Early.” resources can help engage families in developmental monitoring through multiple strategies:
- Promote and share developmental monitoring resources, such as by posting flyers and adding a link or QR code to websites and portals.
- Directly encourage families to monitor development using milestone checklists, such as by sharing printed checklists as anticipatory guidance during well visits, asking about milestones and concerns at following visits, including a Milestones Moments booklet into new patient packets, and/or demonstrating the Milestone Tracker app.
- Actively use the milestone checklists with families, such as by having staff direct families to download the Milestones Tracker app and complete a checklist in the waiting room, then making time to discuss progress, missed milestones, or concerns.

Free “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” Resources to Support Developmental Monitoring and Screening

CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” provides free, high-quality, research-based tools to help families learn the signs of child development and encourage them to act early to access screening and additional services when they have questions or concerns. Materials are written with family-friendly language, include milestones that are easy to observe at home, and are available in various formats. Resources include:

Milestone checklists with guidance for every recommended well-child visit from 2-months to 5-years of age. Printable checklists are available in multiple languages, including Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, English, Farsi, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Digital online checklists in English and Spanish that enable families to see videos and complete and share the checklists online.
Milestone Tracker app, available in English and Spanish, to help parents spot everyday milestones with photos and videos, find tips and activities to support development, and easily share progress with their doctor and providers.
Additional materials, such as the comprehensive Milestone Moments booklet, children’s books, posters, and tip sheets, available in English and Spanish.
Act Early Ambassadors who serve as champions across numerous states, territories, and communities. They are a knowledgeable resource to help integrate “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” strategies and identify what resources are available to support referrals and follow-up.