Assuring Better Child Health & Development

ABCD can support Families in many ways. We can:

Help families understand the importance of standardized developmental screening.
Provide training to families and family support groups on developmental milestones, standardized developmental screening and referral resources in their communities.
Help families understand, feel comfortable, and know what to do and expect if they think their child might have a developmental delay.
Provide familes with information and resources on autism and autism screening.
Facilitate and strengthen relationships between families, health care partners and community referral partners.
Empower families to participate as partners and share their concerns with their health care providers.
Encourage families to ask their health care providers to include standardized developmental screening as a routine part of well child visits.

"At 4 years and 4 months is when I found out about Ryan [having fragile X Syndrome]... I did feel that I had lost so much time and what ABCD would have meant to me, and early intervention would have meant, is finding out what to do, earlier... Ages and Stages is so easy to administer, so easy to take, so easy to see, in black and white, red flags, and where a need has arisen. And I just hope that any of the doctors or people that are considering using that tool or any of the early intervention processes, that they consider that heavily."
- Mother of two children with Fragile X Syndrome

"I receive lots of advice from family and friends about parenting. What I really like about the Ages and Stages Questionnaire is that it shows me exactly how he is doing in all areas of development. My friend’s one year old has been walking for months, which left me feeling worried about my baby. After seeing his results, I know that he will probably be walking soon, and that it is OK that he is not quite doing this alone yet." - Mother of 12 month old

"We have loved using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. What we like is that it reassures us that she is on target with her development. It also keeps us on track as parents...in the past, when there have been items that she could not do, we tried them at home during the next few days, and she learned really quickly."
- Parents of 2 year old