Helping Parents Understand Their Newborn: the Clinical Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale 2003
Distributed by Fanlight Productions, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710
Produced by Karen McMillen and Northern Light Productions
Directed by Karen McMillen
DVD, color, 35 min.
College - Adult
Health Sciences, Psychology
Date Entered: 05/28/2004
Reviewed by Lori Widzinski, Health Sciences Library, University at Buffalo, State University of New YorkBased on the work of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and Dr. J. Kevin Nugent of The Brazelton Institute, Children’s Hospital of Boston, the Clinial Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale or CLNBAS, is a tool developed for practitioners and parents to help assess the behavior of the newborn. This DVD from Fanlight not only explains how to use CLNBAS, step by step, but shows its use in hospitals, clinics and at home.
Uncomplicated exercises administered by a practitioner assess infant motor function and muscle tone, habituation, rooting and sucking, the hand grasp, crying and consolability, and responses to different stimuli, among others. Interpreting the responses and behavior exhibited by the infant help parents and health care providers understand infant communication. By the end of the program, it is almost astonishing how easily one can interpret what babies are saying by these simple movements and exercises.
The significance goes beyond that, however, as the clinicians in different settings express their feelings about using CLNBAS and how it helps them relate to the family as a unit. By teaching parents how to interpret behavior, it helps to build relationships and allows the practitioner to give the support needed. Not only does this program present a unique clinical assessment tool, but it is portrayed through a diverse client group – something that is extremely important in health care today.
Helping Parents Understand their Newborn is an exceptional program that will add value to any health sciences library collection, particularly academic institutions where medical, nursing, and allied health programs are found. Highly recommended.