Examines primary health care services that promote infant and young child development in the United States and suggests ways to improve those services. Without appropriate health services, many cognitive, speech, language, and other developmental problems may not be identified. Moreover, if parents do not receive information and counseling to help them stimulate their children’s learning capacities, both school readiness and academic potential can be jeopardized. Research reveals significant gaps between current guidelines for child health care, the care parents report their children are receiving, and the services pediatric practices offer. Closing these gaps could be achieved by: (1) establishing coordinated practice- and community-based developmental health services; (2) overhauling the content and improving the quality of the developmental health services offered by pediatricians; (3) improving the training of physicians and ancillary personnel; (4) modifying coverage and reimbursement policies to minimize financial barriers to developmental care; (5) upgrading the quality measurement and accountability mechanisms to enhance incentives for good performance; and (6) instituting a monitoring system to track and report on the quality of developmental health services children receive. In this way, the child health care system can become a gateway for promoting the best possible development of every child.
