About this session

Thursday, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

The NIH Infant and Toddler Toolbox: Overview of the Cognition, Motor, and Social-Emotional Domains

The NIH Infant and Toddler (“Baby”) Toolbox (NBT) is a nationally normed developmental assessment battery for ages 1-42 months, available for public use starting in early 2025. NBT includes direct, observational, and caregiver-report measures administered via an iPad application. Digital administration addresses several limitations of existing tests (e.g., cost, time-consuming administration, extensive training) and allows for several innovative assessment technologies, including automated scoring, gaze-tracking, and Computer Adaptive Testing (CATs). This symposium introduces the three primary domains: Cognition (Paper 1), Social Emotional (Paper 2), and Motor (Paper 3). Each paper will outline the measures that comprise the domain and review psychometric validity evidence, including internal consistency, construct validity, and test-retest reliability, when available. Results come from a national norming sample (n=2,515) that was representative of the geographic, racial and ethnic, and parental education diversity of the U.S., across 16 sites nationwide in both English and Spanish. Construct validity was assessed on a subset (n=220) of children using the Bayley-4, and on much of the full sample using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire. The discussant will address the implications of NBT for the developmental community across research and clinical settings. Overall, the symposium provides insight into the NBT as a sustainable measurement tool for diverse users across the developmental research community.

Paper #1
Title	Development and Norming of the NIH Baby Toolbox Cognitive Domain
Presenting author	Philip David Zelazo, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, United States

Paper #2
Title	Development and initial validation of the NIH Baby Toolbox Social-Emotional Functioning assessments
Presenting author	Courtney King Blackwell, Ph.D., Northwestern University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Video-based assessment of motor development (1-42 months) for the NIH Infant and Toddler Toolbox
Presenting author	Dr. Karen E. Adolph, Ph.D., New York University, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Dr. Rachel Flynn, San Francisco State University, United States

Discussant
Richard Gershon, Ph.D., Northwestern University, United States

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