The Healthy Steps for Young Children program is a national initiative developed by pediatricians from Boston University in collaboration with professionals from the Commonwealth Fund. This program for families with young children (birth to 3 years of age) provides developmentally--oriented services within pediatric primary care through addition of a Healthy Steps Specialist to pediatric teams--a nurse, child development expert, or social worker who has special training in child development and who becomes the families' primary resource. The first of these two papers describes the rationale behind the Healthy Steps program and its major features. The second paper provides an overview of an evaluation and reports early program findings when infants were 2 to 4 months old. Findings indicate positive changes in parents' knowledge, beliefs, and practices, and improved child outcomes for intervention parents, compared to control group parents. (EV)