"From the very first APGAR score, taken moments after birth, childhood seems full of milestones and measurables these days. Is your child smiling, rolling, sitting, crawling, standing, walking, talking, relating - all at a particular time, all in a particular way. If understood as a range and not as hard-and-fast points in time, these markers can be helpful both for parents and pediatricians, but they can also cause worry, particularly for first-time parents. We were concerned when our daughter - who has been expressive and communicative since her first days - seemed slow to use and understand spoken language, but also frustrated by the prevalence of conventional wisdom indicating that she should be accumulating words by a particular age and in a particular sequence. Following discussions with her pediatrician and several mama friends and relatives, we opted to have our daughter evaluated for speech delays, a process which led to enrolling her in the Massachusetts Early Intervention Program. Funded largely through public grants, and providing services for families and children with a range of therapeutic needs both physical and cognitive, Early Intervention is a wonderful service for parents who are concerned that their child may be falling behind but are fundamentally uncomfortable with the metric-driven approach of some pediatricians and parenting books. Consisting of sessions that seem like structured play for the little ones, Early Intervention offers intensive one-on-one time for kids who may need extra help in a particular area of development without making them feel pushed or 'different.'"