What Assessments Are Commonly Used With Infants With NAS in the NICU Versus Outpatient Settings?

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Answer

In the NICU or for newborns, commonly used assessments include the Neonatal Oral Motor Assessment Scale (NOMAS), Neonatal Eating Outcome (NEO), and Early Feeding Skills (EFS). For outpatient or early intervention settings, options include:

• DAYC-2: For children birth to 5 years using natural environment materials. Assesses cognition, communication, social-emotional development, and adaptive behavior.
• Hawaii Early Learning Profile: For ages birth to 3 years. Criterion-referenced assessment measuring performance on concepts through caregiver interviews and play interactions.
• Infant Toddler Sensory Profile 2: Caregiver questionnaire evaluating sensory processing in infants and toddlers.
• Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2: Assesses fine and gross motor skills using subtests like grasping, and visual-motor integration.
• Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-4: Includes cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive scales.

Challenges exist in outpatient settings as assessments often require a calm alert state which can be difficult to achieve.

This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Developmental Care And Feeding Of Infants With Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, by Tina Davis.