Paeds · growth-development-and-behaviour
Early intervention and developmental care planning
Also known as Early childhood intervention · Developmental care plan · IFSP paediatric · Part C early intervention referral · Family-centred early intervention
Fellowship guide to early intervention and developmental care planning: from parental concern and failed screens to urgent gates, parallel referral, family-centred goals, key-worker coordination, parent-mediated supports, equity, waitlist safety-nets and ANZ/UK/US/Canada system principles without cloning tool-level assessment or condition-specific therapy leaves.
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Target exams
Red flags
- Developmental regression or loss of skills — urgent evaluation, not routine waitlisting
- Infantile spasms, encephalopathy or raised intracranial pressure features
- Suspected non-accidental injury or severe neglect during a developmental presentation
- Severe caregiver mental illness with unsafe infant care
- Failed hearing or vision screen with no timely confirmatory pathway
- Watch-and-wait reassurance without safety-net while function is falling
- Referral made but family never engaged and no owner follows up
Life stages
Care settings
Clinical exam formats
Board mappings
- General and Community Paediatrics
- Growth and Development
- Current 2026 PREP curriculum — Learning Objective related to developmental surveillance, early intervention and care planning
- Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 6: Clinical management – essential general paediatrics
- Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 12: Communication with patients, families, and health professionals
- Renewed curriculum for first-year trainees from 2027 — Learning goal 15: Essential general paediatrics
- Clinical Applications
- Growth and development
- Long Cases
- Short Cases
- 2. Professional skills and knowledge: Communication
- 4. Professional skills and knowledge: Patient management
- 5. Health promotion and illness prevention
- 6. Leadership and team working
- Foundation of Practice (FOP)
- Applied Knowledge in Practice (AKP)
- History
- Communication
- Development
- Clinical
- General Pediatrics Content Outline — Domain on growth, development and behaviour
- General Pediatrics EPA 1: Provide a Medical Home for Well Children of All Ages
- General Pediatrics EPA related to care of children with developmental needs
- Patient Care 5: Patient Management
- Medical Knowledge 1: Clinical Reasoning
- Systems-Based Practice 3: System Navigation for Patient Centered Care – Coordination of Care
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills
- Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
- Health Advocate
- Medical Expert
- Communicator
- Collaborator
- Leader
- Pediatrics: Foundations EPA — Providing well-child care including preventive screening assessment
- Pediatrics: Core EPA — Managing developmental and behavioural concerns
Overview & Definition
A mother says her 20-month-old is “not talking like the cousin.” The screen is delayed. The waiting list for formal psychology is months long. The wrong move is to send them home with “boys talk later” and no plan. The right move is early intervention thinking: protect the child from preventable secondary harm while you work out the full diagnosis. [1] [3]
Early intervention (EI) means organised supports—therapy, parent coaching, education, equipment and social help—started as soon as developmental risk or delay is recognised, rather than after school failure. It is not the same as a single clinic appointment, and it is not the same as a laboratory diagnosis. [4] [9]
A developmental care plan is the written, shared agreement: who the child is in functional terms, what matters to the family, which goals come first, who does what, when you review, and how you escalate. In US Part C language this often appears as an Individualised Family Service Plan (IFSP) style document; other jurisdictions use different names with the same job. [4] [11]
Developmental surveillance is the continuous process of asking, observing and listening at every visit. Screening uses a standardised tool at selected ages. Assessment defines strengths and needs in more depth. Intervention changes daily experience. Examiners punish candidates who collapse those four words into one. [1] [2] [3]
Five questions before you plan early intervention
- 1
What is the functional problem?
Communication, motor, social, learning, behaviour, daily living—name it in plain language.
- 2
Is anything urgent?
Regression, seizures, safeguarding, severe neglect, unsafe caregiver mental health.
- 3
What must run in parallel?
Hearing, vision, medical work-up and EI referral can move together.
- 4
What does the family want first?
Goals owned by caregivers beat therapist-only checklists.
- 5
Who owns follow-up?
Key worker, medical home and review date—or the plan dies on a waitlist.
References24ShowHide
- [1]Lipkin PH Promoting Optimal Development: Identifying Infants and Young Children With Developmental Disorders Through Developmental Surveillance and Screening Pediatrics, 2020.PMID 31843861
- [2]Zubler JM Evidence-Informed Milestones for Developmental Surveillance Tools Pediatrics, 2022.PMID 35132439
- [3]Council on Children With Disabilities Identifying infants and young children with developmental disorders in the medical home: an algorithm for developmental surveillance and screening Pediatrics, 2006.PMID 16818591
- [4]Adams RC Early intervention, IDEA Part C services, and the medical home: collaboration for best practice and best outcomes Pediatrics, 2013.PMID 24082001
- [5]Novak I Early, Accurate Diagnosis and Early Intervention in Cerebral Palsy: Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment JAMA pediatrics, 2017.PMID 28715518
- [6]Orton J Early developmental intervention programmes provided post hospital discharge to prevent motor and cognitive impairment in preterm infants The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2024.PMID 38348930
- [7]Dawson G Randomized, controlled trial of an intervention for toddlers with autism: the Early Start Denver Model Pediatrics, 2010.PMID 19948568
- [8]Rogers SJ A Multisite Randomized Controlled Two-Phase Trial of the Early Start Denver Model Compared to Treatment as Usual Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019.PMID 30768394
- [9]Guralnick MJ Early Intervention for Children with Intellectual Disabilities: An Update Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities : JARID, 2017.PMID 26764896
- [10]Mckinnon K Developmental follow-up of children and young people born preterm, NICE guideline 2017 Archives of disease in childhood. Education and practice edition, 2019.PMID 29802095
- [11]Council on Children with Disabilities and Medical Home Implementation Project Advisory Committee Patient- and family-centered care coordination: a framework for integrating care for children and youth across multiple systems Pediatrics, 2014.PMID 24777209
- [12]Medical Home Initiatives for Children With Special Needs Project Advisory Committee The medical home Pediatrics, 2002.PMID 12093969
- [13]Garner AS Early childhood adversity, toxic stress, and the role of the pediatrician: translating developmental science into lifelong health Pediatrics, 2012.PMID 22201148
- [14]Shonkoff JP The lifelong effects of early childhood adversity and toxic stress Pediatrics, 2012.PMID 22201156
- [15]Coker TR Well-child care clinical practice redesign for serving low-income children Pediatrics, 2014.PMID 24936004
- [16]Council on Community Pediatrics Poverty and Child Health in the United States Pediatrics, 2016.PMID 26962238
- [17]Berman RS Screening for Poverty and Poverty-Related Social Determinants of Health Pediatrics in review, 2018.PMID 29716966
- [18]Bell A Collaborative transdisciplinary intervention in early years - putting theory into practice Child: care, health and development, 2010.PMID 19961502
- [19]White PH Supporting the Health Care Transition From Adolescence to Adulthood in the Medical Home Pediatrics, 2018.PMID 30348754
- [20]Earls MF Incorporating Recognition and Management of Perinatal Depression Into Pediatric Practice Pediatrics, 2019.PMID 30559120
- [21]Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine 2023 Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care Pediatrics, 2023.PMID 36938620
- [22]Størdal K Overtesting and overtreatment-statement from the European Academy of Paediatrics (EAP) European journal of pediatrics, 2019.PMID 31506723
- [23]Pérez-Granado S Family quality of life in early intervention: systematic review and meta-analysis Frontiers in pediatrics, 2026.PMID 42422446
- [24]Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine, Bright Futures Periodicity Schedule Workgroup 2021 Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care Pediatrics, 2021.PMID 33593848