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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
[Following the high-risk newborn: Why? How? Conducting an early medical-psychosocial consultation during
1Centre d'assistance éducative (CAE) du tout-petit, centre d'action médicosociale précoce (CAMSP), Entraide universitaire, 27, rue du Colonel-Rozanoff, 75012 Paris, France. annie.vincent.maurel@noos.fr
Insights
High-risk children need integrated care beyond just medical screening. A multidisciplinary approach supports child development and parent-child interaction, addressing medical, psychological, and social needs.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Child Psychology
- Social Work in Healthcare
Context:
- Traditional follow-up for high-risk infants focuses on medical sequelae.
- Current models may not fully address the complex needs of high-risk children and their families.
- Neonatologists and pediatricians require effective assessment tools for high-risk populations.
Purpose:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary child development consultation.
- To explore an integrated approach addressing medical, psychological, and social risks.
- To support early child-parent interaction and development in high-risk infants.
Summary:
- A specialized consultation integrates neuropediatrics, physical therapy, child psychiatry, and social work.
- This model prioritizes the needs of both the child and parents, fostering interaction.
- Case example: A preterm infant with gaze avoidance and maternal depression highlights the need for holistic assessment.
Impact:
- Advocates for a shift from solely pathology-focused screening to holistic, supportive care.
- Highlights the potential for effective prevention and treatment of psychological and social risks.
- Questions the disproportionate focus on neurological issues with no current cure over treatable psychosocial factors.
Abstract:
The usual follow-up of high-risk children concentrates on screening for sequelae of perinatal pathology, required by emergency pediatricians and neonatologists to assess their practices. The objective is to manage pathologies by intervening as early as possible. However, is this classical medical model, i.e., the diagnosis of something pathological and a schedule of consultations planned at specific dates, adapted to the needs of high-risk children and their parents? Beyond screening, the child development consultation at the Rozanoff Early Medico-Social Action Center, set up at the A. Trousseau Hospital in 1985, proposes a consultation in which a neuropediatrician, a physical therapist, a pediatric psychiatrist-psychoanalyst, and a social worker closely collaborate. The care begun during neonatal hospitalization concentrates on the needs of the child and parents, with a primary objective of lending support to child-parent interaction. The observation of a child born at 26 GW presenting gaze avoidance concurrent with symptoms of depression in the mother exemplifies the importance of this visit. Why are there still so few of this type of consultation taking into account the medical, psychological, and social risks in a single visit? Why is the attention given to neurologic problems, for which there is currently no cure, so disproportionate to the lack of awareness of the psychological and social risks for which effective prevention and treatment possibilities do exist?
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