“There has long been interest in the use of newborn neurobehavior to forecast the future development of children,” reports Dr. Barry Lester, Director of the Brown Center located at the Hospital of Rhode Island.  In the December 7th issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Journal of Pediatrics, we learn that a newborn exam has been developed by Dr. Lester and his team.  It was created to identify newborns “who may have problems with school readiness and behavior at the age four.”  This would open up the possibility of early intervention to prevent these problems.  

The NNNS exam was developed under a contract with the National Institutes of Health and has been studied extensively over a period of two years.  “At three to four and one half years of age, infants with poor performance were more likely to have behavior problems (age three), school readiness (age four) and low IQ (age four and one half).