By Nancy H. Apfel, Ed.M., & Sally Provence, M.D.

This straightforward, easy-to-use, clinically sensitive tool helps you evaluate the strengths and vulnerabilities of children from 6 months to 3 years, and their families, and leads you directly to a plan of action, if one is needed. With the Infant-Toddler and Family Instrument (ITFI), you can organize your impressions about the child, family, and the environment, enabling you to decide whether further referrals and services are needed. Consisting of an Instrument and Manual, the ITFI gives you a clear, step by step way to question caregivers about their child's characteristics, daily activities, health, development, and family life in understandable language that feels natural and comfortable.

The ITFI includes

• an interview component consisting of 35 easily understood questions to ask caregivers in a comfortable and culturally sensitive way;
  
  
• a child development component that helps you make a judgment through observation and tasks about whether the child is functioning at, above, or below age level in specific domains: gross and fine motor, social and emotional, language, and coping and self-help;
  
  
• and checklists to rate your concerns about the family and child

The Manual provides guidelines to help family service providers, including home visitors, determine whether the family and child are at sufficient risk to require referrals for further evaluation to other professionals or agencies, such as psychologists and pediatricians. Four case studies are also presented to illustrate the use of ITFI, including the development of a plan of action.

Flexible enough to be used in a variety of home visiting or center-based programs by family service providers from different fields with varying levels of education and experience, the ITFI can be conducted in homes or in child care/medical settings. And it has been field-tested — as an instrument of family and child function for service providers — and as a teaching tool to inform future service providers, such as doctors, nurses, social workers, and others about early child development and areas of family life and home environment that affect child development.

The Instrument

1. Caregiver Interview
   
   • Part 1: Home and Family Life
     
   • Part 2: Child Health and Safety
     
   • Part 3: Family Issues and Concerns
     
     
2. Developmental Map
   
   • Gross and Fine Motor Development
     
   • Social and Emotional Development
     
   • Language Development
     
   • Coping and Self-Help Development
     
   • Developmental Map Summary Sheet
     
     
3. Checklist for Evaluating Concern
   
   • Home and Family Environment
     
   • Child Health, Development, and Safety
     
   • Stressors in the Child's Life
     
   • Checklist for Evaluating Concern Summary Sheet
     
     
4. Plan for the Child and Family
   
   

The Manual

About the Authors
Foreword, by Edward Zigler
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Overview
   
   
2. Preparing to Visit the Family
   
   
3. Conducting the Infant-Toddler and Family Instrument (ITFI)
   
   
4. Awareness of Cultural Differences
   
   
5. Completing the Caregiver Interview
   
   • Part 1: Home and Family Life
     
   • Part 2: Child Health and Safety
     
   • Part 3: Family Issues and Concerns
     
     
6. Using the Developmental Map
   
   • Gross and Fine Motor Development
     
   • Social and Emotional Development
     
   • Language Development
     
   • Coping and Self-Help Development
     
   • Developmental Map Summary Sheet
     
     
7. Completing the Checklist for Evaluating Concern
   
   • Home and Family Environment
     
   • Child Health, Development, and Safety
     
   • Stressors in the Child's Life
     
   • Checklist for Evaluating Concern Summary Sheet
     
     
8. Arriving at a Plan for the Child and Family
   
   
9. Case Studies
   

Appendix A: Picture Cards
Appendix B: Field Testing