Development is a Journey

A Conversation Roadmap for Talking with Families about Their Child’s Development

Conversations about developmental screening results and concerns can be time-consuming and anxiety-provoking for families and pediatric primary care providers, early educators, and home visitors. Yet the benefits are clear: when families and their child’s providers have productive conversations about a child’s development, they are better equipped to work as a team to co-create and follow through on a collaborative plan that supports the best outcomes for the child.

To simplify, support, and strengthen these important and often challenging conversations, the Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC), in partnership with and funded by Ariadne Labs, has created the Development is a Journey Conversation Roadmap for family-facing providers. The Roadmap is designed to facilitate these conversations with seven short and simple steps to actively engage parents and other caregivers in planning for their child’s developmental needs, and enhance the provider-parent partnership.

There are five versions of the Conversation Roadmap — for pediatric primary care providers, home visitors, early care and education providers, early interventionists, and staff who utilize Developmental Monitoring checklists. Each version is accompanied by an Implementation Guide that describes how to use the Roadmap in your conversations with parents and other caregivers. Review the Roadmap and Implementation Guide relevant to your professional role. The Roadmaps are fillable PDFs that can be completed electronically or printed and filled out by hand.

Interested in a training about the Roadmap for yourself or your team?

BTC offers two trainings about the Roadmap to suit your professional development needs:

• Development is a Journey: A Conversation Roadmap for Talking with Families is a 3-hour workshop that summarizes how to incorporate the Roadmap in conversations with families about developmental screening results.
• Act Early: Partnering with Families on Developmental Screening and Referrals is a 6-week, 15-hour training that goes into more detail about strengths-based approaches for building partnerships with families, discussing the developmental screening process and results, and developing a collaborative service plan.

Register for upcoming workshops here. We can also bring professional development opportunities to your organization or program. Contact us to schedule a training.

Download the Conversation Roadmap

For Pediatric Primary Care Providers

For Mental Health Clinicians

• Development is a Journey Conversation Roadmap
  • Download in full color (PDF)
  • Download in blue (PDF, printer-friendly)
  • Download in gray (PDF, printer-friendly)
• Implementation Guide (PDF)

For Home Visitors

For Early Care and Education Providers

For Early Interventionists

• Development is a Journey Conversation Roadmap
  • Download in full color (PDF)
  • Download in blue (PDF, printer-friendly)
  • Download in gray (PDF, printer-friendly)
• Implementation Guide (PDF)

For staff who utilize Developmental Monitoring checklists

For more information about developmental screening, review these resources for providers and parents:

Contact us to learn more!