Assessment in the Early Years
Dr. A. Bakshi
Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale (BNAS)
Individual test
For infants between 3 days and 8 weeks of age
Index of a newborn’s competence
Developed in 1973 by a Howard pediatrician, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and his colleagues.
Produces 47 scores: 27 behavioral items and 20 elicited responses
BNAS: Special Contributions
When the Scale was published in the early 1970s, people were just beginning to appreciate the infant 's full breadth of capabilities, and the only tests available were designed to detect abnormalities.
The Scale was designed to go beyond available assessments by revealing the infant 's strengths and range of individuality, while still providing a health screen.
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Generally, the child blinks and squirms in irritation. When we repeat the process several times, the infant usually tunes out the stimulation and remains asleep.
The baby 's ability to ignore the stimulation allows her to conserve energy and to develop. If a baby has trouble blocking out stimulation during the exam, parents will know that they need to support their child, perhaps by being quiet or keeping her from bright light.
The Fourth Developmental Task
Finally, when an infant 's autonomic, motor and state systems are in equilibrium, she is ready to interact socially, the ultimate developmental task.
The Scale shows how babies are ready to be engaged in their new world from the first moments of life.
In this portion of the assessment, the examiner looks to see how a baby follows a red ball, a face and a voice. It is a powerful experience for parents to see their new child respond to their voices or study their faces.
BNAS: Other examples
For example, one part of the exam looks at an infant 's ability to self-console when she is upset. Some infants console themselves easily, while others have a more difficult time. If the infant cannot console herself, the examiner takes measured steps to help her.
Not only do we learn how much support the infant may need at home, but also how far along the child is at completing her developmental agenda.
BNAS: Reputation
“The greatest breadth of the available neonatal
A child’s development can be measured through physical and language milestones, intellectual, emotional and social development.
The physical development of a baby in its first six months of life shows limited range of movement but the beginnings of an ability to respond to stimulus around them. They show their reaction to people, sounds and movement by turning their head toward whatever attracts their attention. They will watch an adult’s face whilst feeding, but have already begun to shows signs of recognition as they will smile when familiar people are around them either because they can see them
The milestones achieved follow a pattern, however the rate differs as each child is unique. This information becomes important to early childhood educators to track and trace and intervene so that additional help and support can be provided benefitting the child. Lack of information regarding the rate and sequence of development will not enable us to provide intervention. Delayed intervention can lead to complication and irreversible defects.
As the babies begin to recognise people around them this has an impact on their emotional development as they can become distressed when people are not around.
Each child’s physical, social, emotional, and intellectual and language development will be looked at through age stages. All of these categories are as important as each other and can each have a substantial impact on the child’s full adult potential.
At a certain age infants begin to resist the unfamiliar and are very vocal in expressing their feelings (Brazelton, 1992).
At 6 weeks infants develop a social smile, at 3 month laughter and curiosity develop, at 4 months full responsive smiles emerge, from 4-8 months they develop anger, from 9014 months they develop a fear of social events, at 12 months the are fearful of unexpected sights and sounds, and at 18 months they are self-aware, feel pride, shame, and embarrassment. In the first two years, infants develop from reactive pain and pleasure to complex patterns of social awareness. Emotions in infants are produced from their body as opposed to their thoughts. Therefore fast and uncensored reactions are common in infants. During their toddler years, the strength of their emotions will increase.
Research has shown that the way the caregiver and infant interact has a significant effect on the maturation of the infant's nervous system,
At this stage a baby is trying to develop an attachment to the primary care giver, because of the limited language skills a baby posses it
| Good way of seeing where the child is with their development – do they need encouragement in a certain area?
On behalf of the early childhood initiative to provide early intervention for those infants and toddlers experiencing difficulty, I thank you for your engagement and cooperation. This system is designed to “[help] eligible babies and toddlers learn the basic and brand-new skills that typically develop during the first three years of life, such as: physical (reaching, rolling, crawling, and walking) and self-help (eating, dressing) skills (Center for Parent Information and Resources, 2014). We are dedicated to working with your family and your individual needs. This system is not meant to bog you down with out-of-town appointments from professionals, but instead provide you with support and suggestions for the healthy development of your child.
Infants are a special cohort of a population in the society. Children between the ages of five months to two years are at a stage where they start familiarizing with their surroundings and have different reactions to situations. The surrounding where an infant grows greatly determines his or her development. The primary determinant of the development of infants is the parent-infant interaction (Crain, 2015). The first bond or relation of a child is with its biological parents or guardians in the case of orphaned children.
The development of a child in the first year of life is extremely intense; in just 52 weeks’ an infant goes through major physical, cognitive and social and emotional developments.
Infancy is far from what some have assumed – a time for rigidly and mechanically handling the baby because he seems to have so little capability as an adapting human being. The following developmental tasks are to be accomplished in infancy:
Although babies spend most of their time sleeping and eating they still have transitions to different stages. For example, reflexes are the most common for people to recognize the organized patterns of behavior. Also, a crying baby is what everyone recognizes. However, it is somewhat good when the baby cries, because it stimulates strong discomfort that the adults can realize. Usually the baby just needs a diaper change or needs to be feed, but sometimes its more and it is the parent's job to figure out why the baby is crying. The parents have to soothe them; they can do this by rocking, walking, swaddling, and talking softly. The baby also is developing their five senses, so it is important that the parents do not interfere with the development. For example, using screaming very loudly can ruin a baby's hearing. Vision is the one that develops the least. Nerveless, newborns can recognize human faces and want the mother's familiar face instead of a stranger. The most widely used instrument for helping the behavior of the newborn infant is Brazelton's Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). It has helped researchers understand newborns better.