Centre for the study of social emotional development of
at risk infant
Tools
Clinical practice and research activity are largely based
on reliable, well validated procedures and tools, which could
provide operational guidance to support child’s social
emotional development and mother-child interaction. The largely
used instruments are:
-
The scale for the assessment of the newborn neurobehavioral
profile NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS).
The scale, developed by Barry Lester and Edward Tronick
in 2004, is a comprehensive assessment of the newborn
that allows the clinician and the researcher to draw a
profile of neurobehavioral skills of high-risk children,
providing also information concerning the presence of
signs of stress. As recently documented, furthermore,
the scale is able to predict cognitive and behavioral
problems detected at the age of four years (Pediatrics,
2009). Within the IRCCS operates the Medea Centre for
the neurobehavioral assessment of infant - NNNS Italian
program of research and training, which is the only Italian
centre certified to provide NNNS training and the related
certification. In accordance with the guidelines and under
the supervision of the authors, the training course is
conducted periodically by teachers credited to the use
of scale, based on lectures, video, demonstrations of
administration of the scale with term and preterm infants,
and practices. After the training, participants have to
take an examination to receive NNNS certification;
-
The Still-Face paradigm, introduced
by Tronick and colleagues in the late seventies. The procedure
allows to assess infant social skills, emotional adjustment
and coping. It also allows to observe the quality of emotional
interaction between mother and child. The paradigm includes
a temporary interruption of communication by the mother
during face-to-face interaction with their child and lets
you see the strategies adopted by the child to cope with
the subsequent stress. The application of the paradigm
at the Center is based on years of experience with infants
at risk and not, under the constant supervision of Prof.
Tronick, creator of the procedure and director of the
Child Development Unit, Harvard Medical School in Boston,
with which the Center is a partner since its foundation;
-
The coding system of mother-infant interaction Global
Rating Scale, developed by Prof. Murray and colleagues.
The system allows to assess the quality of early mother-infant
relationship through the coding of behaviors exhibited
during a face-to-face interaction videotaped during the
first months of life of the infant. The supervision of
Prof. Murray and a specific training in the use of the
coding system acquired by the operators of the Center
are the basis of a research activity developed in collaboration
with the Winnicott Research Unit, University of Reading.
In addition, several self-report tools addressed to parents
and educators/teachers are utilized. The Center has translated
and adapted the Italian versions of some of these, as in the
following cases:
-
The questionnaire Social Competence and Behavior
Evaluation (SCBE) introduced by LaFreniere and
Dumas for the assessment of social competence, emotional
expression and adaptive difficulties in children between
30 and 78 months;
-
The questionnaires TAPQOL and TACQOL,
developed by the Leiden Center for Child Health and Pediatrics
LUMC-TNO, aimed at assessing the health-related quality
of life in n children;
-
The questionnaires Parental Stressor Scale :
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit e Nurse Parent Support Tool,
developed by Margaret Miles and designed to asses the
levels of parental stress and the perception of support
received from the NICU staff during the hospitalisation
in neonatal intensive care units;
-
The Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised,
developed by Mary Rothbart & Maria Gartstein (2000)
developed for the analysis of infant temperament in the
first year of life.
17-Gen-2013
- © I.R.C.C.S. Medea
|
Italian