Parents know what it means to want the best for their children. But while parents do their utmost to support their young children it can be unclear just what healthy childhood development looks like. The Ontario Government recognizes this unique problem and recommends that parents and caregivers take children to visit a health care provider for what is known as the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit.

Health care professionals in Ontario may be familiar with the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit, which is best summarized as a time to evaluate and openly discuss a child’s overall development on a variety of key levels, including: the child’s social and emotional development; motor and language skills; parenting issues and healthy habits; safety concerns; as well as their physical health. The visit is a key appointment for immunizations and may be the last regular check-up before a child starts school. It’s a crucial opportunity to assess and discuss the child's development and make any connections among health care professionals, parents and community resources.

As a health professional, you’re in a unique position to improve the odds that children will meet their developmental potential. To help promote understanding about the enhanced visit, we’ve created two free and certified courses designed specifically to assist health professionals in facilitating the Enhanced 18-Month Well-Baby Visit in their practice.

Announcing the 18-Month Visit Planner

One of the primary goals of the enhanced 18-month visit is to promote effective communication between parents and health professionals. To support a more dynamic and meaningful conversation, we strive to promote parents’ understanding of the 18-month visit and to accomplish this we will soon be launching a new interactive companion to our 18-Month Visit course. Later this month we at the Division of e-Learning Innovation will launch the 18-Month Well-Baby Visit Planner, which allows parents to take a more active role in their child’s visit. It only takes 5-10 minutes to complete and allows users to personalize a unique plan for their child’s visit; highlighting key areas that parents may want to discuss with their health care team. Upon completion, each unique visit plan can be saved and printed out to bring to the visit.

Stay tuned for more on the launch of the Visit Planner, which will be coming soon! In the meantime, if you haven’t already, familiarize yourself with the enhanced 18-month well-baby visit.