Mental health articles

Infant developmental assessment
Developmental assessment can be included, when appropriate, as part of the
therapeutic intervention. There are many different kinds of developmental
assessment undertaken, depending on the purpose of the assessment, the
clinician’s skills and abilities, and the family’s needs and concerns. Involving
parents in the assessment process can provide them with useful information
about their infant’s abilities and needs and also allows the clinician to see what use they are able to make of this information.

Conducting a developmental assessment
Some general principles apply:
• First, as in any assessment, ask what information the parents want to receive.
This helps build rapport and indicates to the family that the process is for the
benefit of the infant and family. Respecting parents’ requests at this stage may
enable more sensitive or difficult information to be discussed at a later stage.
• Provide a safe, comfortable environment for the infant.
• Assess the infant’s optimal level of functioning and/or what he can do with
support.
• Involve one or both parents (in the room for infants, or behind a one-way
mirror for older children) in the process of assessing their infant’s skills,
interests, behaviour and adaptive capacities.
• Be aware of and sensitive to cultural differences, respecting and appreciating
these when interacting with and assessing infants and their families.
What should a developmental assessment include?
Conducting a developmental assessment involves:
• obtaining information about the infant’s developmental, health and
family/social history
• engaging with the infant or toddler in order to assess his developmental skills
and emerging capacities across a range of areas (for example, motor, sensory
and social)
• assessment of the infant’s behaviour and coping abilities during the testing
and play sessions
• observation of the infant in different settings (that is, home, clinician’s office
and day care)
• evaluation of the quality of parent–infant relationships/interactions,
including strengths and areas of concern.
Video replay of parts of the assessment can be used to engage parents in
understanding their infant’s needs and abilities.

Tags: infant