Neurological assessment from birth to 6

How to make simple in clinical neurology in the first years of life? Perinatal insults occur on a brain which is in rapid development. The clinical presentation of these pathologies is thus changing particularly in the neuromotor domain during the first two years. Therefore the clinician needs precise landmarks to detect possible deviancy at each stage of development. In the first edition published in 1998 we proposed a single and unique assessment tool applicable from birth to 6 years of life. This first edition already included the technical description for each maneuvers scoring and coding system. After 10 years of use in clinical research as well as in regular follow-up the current edition is improved: • research data collected at the corrected age of 2 years have allowed to identify a spectrum of neurological disabilities from disabling cerebral palsy to more minor signs; • the proposed 5-level categorization of neuromotor disabilities has shown significant correlation with developmental and intellectual performances both at preschool and school age providing a link between early perinatal insults and different neurodevelopmental disabilities of late emergence. This assessment tool should be systematically used with high risk infants to better understand the course of their development in order to implement early intervention when neurocranial signs are present. It should also be used to assess current perinatal practices.