Relationships matter: How clinicians can support positive parenting in the early years.

A secure attachment relationship with at least one healthy adult is essential for a child to develop optimal coping abilities. Primary care providers like paediatricians and family physicians can help by supporting parents in practice settings. Every clinician encounter is an opportunity to ask parents about children's relationships and their behaviour, daily routines, and overall family function.

Evaluation of the revised Nipissing District Developmental Screening (NDDS) tool for use in general population samples of infants and children.

Background: There is widespread interest in identification of developmental delay in the first six years of life. This requires, however, a reliable and valid measure for screening. In Ontario, the 18-month enhanced well-baby visit includes province-wide administration of a parent-reported survey, the Nipissing District Developmental Screening (NDDS) tool, to facilitate early identification of delay.

Concurrent validity of the Ages And Stages Questionnaires and Bayley Developmental Scales in a general population sample.

Objective: Developmental delay is relatively common and produces serious impairment. Efforts to screen for delay often include parent-completed instruments. We evaluated the agreement between the most popular such instrument, the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ) and the third edition of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-III).

Measuring in support of early childhood development.

A child's early experiences and environments have a significant, measurable effect on later life trajectories of health and well-being. Each child's own world, especially parents and other caregivers, literally sculpts the brain and impacts stress pathways. Effective early childhood interventions exist that can improve adult and societal outcomes.

Getting it right at 18 months: In support of an enhanced well-baby visit.

Evolving neuroscience reveals an ever-strong relationship between children's earliest development/environment and later life experience, including physical and mental health, school performance and behaviour. Paediatricians, family physicians and other primary care providers need to make the most of well-baby visits-here a focus on an enhanced 18-month visit-to address a widening 'opportunity gap' in Canada. An enhanced visit entails promoting healthier choices and positive parenting to families, using anticipatory guidance and physician-prompt tools, and connecting children and families with local community resources.

How has the science of early child development informed a child psychiatrist's practice?

Information on the science of early child development has become increasingly available to the public at large. Physicians have an important role in translating the science into accessible language as well as activities for parents and caregivers to foster healthy development. A strategy to engage primary care in Ontario through the use of an enhanced 18-month well-baby visit is described.

Ontario and the enhanced 18-month well-baby visit: Trying new approaches.

In Ontario, the 18-month well-baby visit is the last scheduled primary care visit before school entry. Recognizing the importance of this visit and the role that primary care plays in developmental surveillance, an Ontario expert panel recommended enhancing the 18-month visit. Their recommendations are based on evidence from multiple disciplines, which underscore the reality that the quality of the early years experience establishes trajectories of health and well-being for children.