Neurological assessment from birth to 6

How to make simple in clinical neurology in thefirst years of life? Perinatal insults occur on a brainwhich is in rapid development. The clinical presentationof these pathologies is thus changing particularlyin the neuromotor domain during the first two years.Therefore the clinician needs precise landmarks todetect possible deviancy at each stage of development.In the first edition published in 1998 we proposeda single and unique assessment tool applicable frombirth to 6 years of life. This first edition already includedthe technical description for each maneuvers scoringand coding system.After 10 years of use in clinical research as well asin regular follow-up the current edition is improved:• research data collected at the corrected age of2 years have allowed to identify a spectrum ofneurological disabilities from disabling cerebralpalsy to more minor signs;• the proposed 5-level categorization of neuromotordisabilities has shown significant correlationwith developmental and intellectual performancesboth at preschool and school age providing alink between early perinatal insults and differentneurodevelopmental disabilities of late emergence.This assessment tool should be systematically usedwith high risk infants to better understand the courseof their development in order to implement early interventionwhen neurocranial signs are present. It shouldalso be used to assess current perinatal practices.