Preface

Following birth, an infant’s first 4 years are recognized as

critical in the establishment of a solid foundation for later
development. Most infants exhibit a normal developmental
course, and thus typically need only routine attention from
pediatric specialists. However, the early development of
a sizable number of infants is punctuated by delays that, if
allowed to continue, can chart a course for later difficulties.
These infants and young children need specialized attention
from one or more professionals prepared to address these
developmental concerns.
Professionals generally begin their work by acquiring
a thorough understanding of a young child’s development, one
that leads to an accurate description of his or her behaviors. The
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third
Edition (Bayley-III; Bayley, 2006) can assist importantly in this
effort.
The Bayley-III provides an individual assessment of the
developmental functioning of infants and young children
between 1 and 42 months of age. The Bayley-III is one of few
measures designed specifically for use with this population. It
enables assessment of the following five behavior domains
important to the provision of professional services in light of
legal and professional standards: cognitive, language, motor,
social-emotional, and adaptive functioning. The Bayley-III is
likely to be the most widely used instrument to assess infants
and toddlers, and many consider it to be the reference standard
in that regard.
This book’s individual chapters introduce professionals who
use the Bayley-III to its test content, and includes important
scholarship regarding the foundations from which the test
content is derived. The chapters also help guide practitioners in
the administration, scoring, and interpretation of the scale. The
test’s strengths and areas of concerns are discussed. Clinicians,

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other practitioners, and students are also likely to benefit from

discussions of each scale’s use with clinical groups, as well as
from the inclusion of actual case studies of children who display
delays in one or more of the five developmental domains.
Excellent introductory and concluding chapters surround
the five chapters that focus on each of the individual scales. The
book begins with an overview of the Bayley-III by the research
director responsible for leading the test development project.
This chapter illuminates the impact of advances in theory and
clinical research that informed the revision of Bayley-II to
become the Bayley-III. The book concludes with a scholarly
chapter on research related to neurodevelopmental screening
procedures in pediatric settings, using a related but distinct test,
the Bayley Infant Neurodevelopmental Screener. Practical,
reliable, and valid methods for screening in pediatric settings
are offered. This chapter provides an excellent compendium of
research for those making decisions about instituting screening
programs for infants and toddlers.
A wide range of pediatric professionals, especially those who
use the Bayley-III to evaluate development from multiple
perspectives, is likely to be informed by the book’s breadth of
content, including its literature reviews. These include educa-
tional diagnostic specialists; developmental, clinical child,
pediatric, and school psychologists; occupational and physical
therapists; speech/language pathologists; and other members
of the medical community. Psychologists may be most inter-
ested in the assessment of cognitive and adaptive functioning,
speech/language pathologists in assessing language develop-
ment, occupational and physical therapists in assessing fine and
gross motor development, and early childhood specialists and
others in evaluating social and emotional functioning. This
book is particularly well suited as a text for new examiners
learning to administer, score, and interpret the Bayley-III in
a standardized and clinically appropriate manner.
The book’s editors and authors recognize that evaluation of
infant and toddler development requires teamwork that
includes parents and professionals – often from more than one
discipline. The book’s organization enables professionals to
focus on their area of specialty by reading the chapter or
chapters most germane to their work. We also believe an
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understanding of all content within the book helps to develop

perspectives that assist in providing a quality, multidisciplinary
assessment that truly addresses the needs of infants and
toddlers who display developmental concerns.

January 2010

Lawrence G. Weiss
Thomas Oakland
Glen P. Aylward