Principles of Assessment - Diagnostic Classification in Infancy and Early Childhood

Principles of Assessment

Many different assumptions and theories contribute to our ap-proach to diagnosis and treatment. These assumptions come from both clinical practice and research. Developmental, psychodynamic, family systems, relationship and attachment theory inform our work, as do observations of the way infants organize their experience, infant–caregiver interaction patterns, temperament, regulatory patterns and individual differences in many domains of development.

We have formulated a model to characterize the differ-ent factors that must be taken into account and understood in an infant’s, toddler’s, or preschooler’s functioning within the con-text of his family, community and world. We call this model the Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based (DIR) model.