Step by Step for Healthy Children

The Step by Step for Healthy Children project takes a multifaceted approach toward improving access, availability and quality of services for young children, prenatal to age 8, and their families. From partnering with medical providers to screen more children, to providing parents with the tools needed to be advocates for their families, Paso a Paso is working to ensure that our community’s young children grow up safe and healthy.

Health & Developmental Screenings
Paso a Paso is committed to increasing the opportunity for young children in our community to receive the recommended health and developmental screenings before they enter kindergarten. Using these screening tools to identify any problems will help children to receive the needed medical care, early intervention services, or simple equipment like eyeglasses or hearing aids. Health care providers and early childhood providers alike recognize that ensuring that children get the right treatment or services early on can maximize their developmental outcomes. Failing to identify and treat these problems may compromise children’s ability to perform to their potential in school and lead to more costly special education and/or health care interventions later.

The Network is collaborating with local health clinics to build their capacity to offer vision, hearing and developmental screenings. Paso a Paso is also partnering with community organizations to offer screenings for children birth to five years of age. Recent partnerships include working with Taos Municipal School District to plan the District’s annual Child Health and Development Fair.


Referral Database
A centralized referral database allows Network member organizations to easily make and track referrals for their clients to health and social services in the community. This online tool enhances the continuum of care for families with young children through efficiently linking services and supporting access coordination by providers. The Network will address trends and barriers to care identified out of the database through advocating for policy and system changes.


Family Portfolio
The Family Portfolio helps parents store and organize important health, education and family documents. This allows families to carry their records from one service provider to another, putting the tools they need to advocate for themselves into their own hands.

Documents stored in the portfolio may include hearing, vision, dental and developmental screening results, medical insurance cards, and Individualized Education Program notes. This specially-designed binder with labeled sections and folders prompts parents to keep and organize important records. These files help children make successful transitions through each period of their lives — whether it be Well-Child Checks with their primary care providers, early-intervention services, or registering for kindergarten. The Family Portfolio also helps remind parents to obtain important screenings for their children, encouraging them to be responsible and proactive about their family’s health all year long.