Group meeting in Barnstable

Twenty NBAS Trainers from all over the world convened in Cape Cod from May 27-31st 2007 to discuss the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS). This historic - and memorable - meeting, hosted by Christina and Berry Brazelton in their home in Barnstable, brought together researchers and clinicians from Asia, Europe and North America, all of whom have been responsible for the training of candidates in the use of the NBAS in their respective countries.

Attendees at the Barnstable meeting included: Yvette Blanchard (US); T. Berry Brazelton (US); Nadia Bruschweiler-Stern (Switzerland); Drina Candilis-Huisman (France); Alain Caron (Belgium); Carme Costas-Moragas (Spain); Claire De Vriendt-Goldman (Belgium); Marie-Paule Durieux (Belgium); Joao Gomes-Pedro (Portugal); Marie Grenet (France); Joanna Hawthorne (UK); Elizabeth Hutchon (UK); Constance Keefer (US); Nittaya Kotchakbakdi (Thailand); Cecilia Matson (US); Hanne Munck (Denmark); J. Kevin Nugent (US); Shohei Ohgi (Japan); Gherardo Rapizardi (Italy); Joshua Sparrow (US); Beulah Warren (Australia). NBAS Trainer Emeritus, Jean Gardner Cole also attended the meeting.

Nadia, Elizabeth, and Carme

This was the most recent meeting in a series of meetings which have been convened by Berry Brazelton and Kevin Nugent over the years to review and update the NBAS. The international meetings were organized to enable NBAS trainers to share their ideas about the NBAS and to discuss its uses in these very different research and clinical settings, with a view to maintaining the highest levels of quality control in the training of new examiners. The first NBAS Trainers meeting took place in Barnstable in 1981, followed by the first international NBAS meeting in Berlin in 1985. This was followed a decade later by a meeting in Brussels, which, in turn, was followed by a meeting in Boston in 2002.

This year's meeting marked the first stage of the preparation of the fourth edition of the NBAS manual. The NBAS trainers, who make us the Brazelton Institute International Network (BIIN), will spend the next year working together on the preparation of the new edition of the NBAS manual. One of the specific goals of the Barnstable meeting was to review the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale manual, to examine and refine the scoring criteria and administration guidelines, to discuss training of new examiners and to re-examine the research and clinical uses of the NBAS. It is anticipated that the new manual will include not only more detailed guidelines for examiners but will also include more theoretical and background information for users of the NBAS manual. The manual will be published by McKeith Press, an affiliate of Cambridge University Press.

The meeting was filmed by Aoife Nugent and Jeremy Leach. The Sound Engineer was Benjamin Avishai