IDA-2 co-authors, Dr. Kyle Pruett and Susan Vater, were invited to give a presentation at this year’s Zero To Three Annual Conference in Denver Colorado. The presentation, “Best Practice Developmental Assessment of Infants and Toddlers; the Test of Time” focused on the increasing numbers of young children identified as being at risk for developmental and behavioral vulnerabilities through routine developmental surveillance and screening and what we have learned over the decades about best practice for the next appropriate step - developmental assessment.
The presentation talked about what constitutes a developmental evaluation that considers the full range of infant and toddler development, appreciating that each domain is influenced by, and interacts continuously and dynamically with, every other domain of development and how we integrate the harder-to-assess, often short-changed emotional/psychosocial skills and vulnerabilities, given the field's preference for strengths- based, family- centered assessment leading to appropriate family support and service planning. We explored best practice in developmental assessment with special focus on the Infant Toddler Developmental Assessment (IDA-2).
The original IDA was developed by Sally Provence, MD, one of the founders and past Zero To Three Board President, and her Yale colleagues Joanna Erikson, Susan Vater and Saro Palmeri. The Second Edition, IDA-2, added co-authors Kyle Pruett and Jennifer Rosinia. Kyle D. Pruett, MD, is past president of Zero To Three and clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. Jennifer Rosinia is Kid Link Unlimited CEO and Erikson Institute Adjunct Faculty.