A New Model of Assessing the Behavioral Organization in Preterm and Fullterm Infants: Two Case Studies

Abstract

How smoothly and flexibly the developing infant integrates subsystems of functioning, such as the autonomic, motor, state, attentional/interactive, and regulatory systems, in his interaction with the animate and inanimate world, and how wide and stable the band of well organized, differentiated, and modulated functioning is are the parameters in the model of infant individuality proposed here. Three paradigms are suggested to cover the assessment of these dynamic developmental process dimensions in the first year of life: the Assessment of Preterm Infants' Behavior (A.P.I.B.), the face-to-face paradigm, and the Assessment of Older Infants' Behavior (A.O.I.B.), or kangaroo-box paradigm. Two cases, one of a preterm and the other of a fullterm infant, are described as assessed in these paradigms. Continuing issues of heightened sensitivity and active reduction of complexity on the preterm infant's part, and the simultaneous need for continuing facilitation and careful, supportive environmental structuring in order to expand the infant's range and modulation are apparent, as are the relative robustness and differentiation of the fullterm infant. This proposed model of development makes implications for preventive and supportive care quite obvious.