Biobehavioral Assessment of the Infant

This book is most probably already on the office shelves of infancy and early childhood researchers. The editors have done a superb job ensuring that a uniform model of reporting the varied areas of infant research was used throughout. All chapters used the same format: giving a history of the construct studied a general description and an elaboration of the biobehavioral basis of a particular assessment. In addition, where applicable, all authors also reported the reliability and validity of the assessment instrument under study and the training requirements. The twenty-two chapters in five sections covered introductory issues in infant development, prenatal growth and sensory development, arousal and regulation, learning and attention, and standard assessments. It is beyond this review to give a detailed description of the information contained in this scholarly book, however, I will give the gist of the most important points conveyed to me and leave readers to draw their own conclusions regarding the usefulness of this book for them. At the very beginning, a review of the reliability and validity of the tools used in infant research challenged some commonly held views on the timing and methods of education for handicapped children. For instance, the speed of processing and memory counting for the relationships between 7-month visual recognition memory and 1-year cross-modal transfers to the IQ of the11-year-old! That kind of prediction power can often be used in directing parents in how to enhance their child’s learning. The second chapter on understanding development and risk was also an eye opener. This chapter allowed me to explore the true application of methodology in understanding infant development. Two points that were emphasized were the issue of the direction of effect sizes, and the size of effects in risk research. The effect sizes, as an easily understood quantitative index of change in predictor status, was presented with convincing statements. While fetal neurobehavioral research may not seem applicable to the majority of us and our work, this is where the growth in understanding of human development is proceeding rapidly. This book illustrated its importance to later development and why we need both to pay attention to it and incorporate it into the training curriculum. Section III was probably designed with infant psychiatrists in mind and was the most pleasurable reading I’ve done for a while. The section is entitled arousal and regulation, terms used by all child psychiatrists almost on a daily basis. It comprised a discussion of the topic and assessment tools on vagal tone, infant temperament, sleep-wake states, infant crying, salivary cortisol measurement, and attachment assessment in the strange situation. The only Canadian contributor, Dr Goldberg gave a superb overview of the attachment assessment using the strange situation. Section IV is devoted to learning and attention. A detailed look at three measures of learning and information processing were well described. Three important paradigms tapping into cognitive development were emphasized: habituation, learned expectancies, and instrumental conditioning. Part V is likely to be beneficial to clinicians and researchers alike. It reviewed developmental assessments that measure a variety of infant behaviors. The Bayley scales of infant development, motor assessment, and the neonatal behavioral basement scales as described would be familiar territory to most of us. This section also included the neurobehavioral assessment of the pre-term infant. The reading was not easy because it included technical aspects of some assessment tools that are not necessarily in general usage. However, all the information was challenging and thought provoking. Overall I enjoyed reading this book and also learned new information about fetal neurodevelopmental assessment. Reading this book also clarified for me confusing issues in the application of statistical information to developmental models. This book is highly relevant to researchers in early infancy and childhood. It requires concentration and sometimes several reads before one gets the “Eureka” experience. Section III on arousal and regulation is clearly the most applicable for all child psychiatrists.