Dr. Rachel Flynn helps launch infant and toddler assessment tool
Rachel Flynn, associate professor of Child and Adolescent Development, has played a key role in the creation of the NIH Baby Toolbox, a first-of-its-kind assessment system that measures cognitive, motor and social-emotional development in children from 1 to 42 months old.
Available to researchers and clinicians nationwide, the NIH Baby Toolbox is administered entirely on an iPad, offering modern, efficient alternatives to traditional assessments that are often costly and time-consuming. With gaze- and touch-based tasks, automated scoring and availability in both English and Spanish, the system provides accessible, standardized tools for assessing development across diverse populations.
Flynn recently co-authored three papers in a special issue of Infant Behavior and Development highlighting the toolbox. Her lead contribution focused on executive function and memory measures: new tools that evaluate skills such as memory and attention, which are crucial for later learning and achievement. She also contributed to papers on the methodology and norming of the toolbox and on its innovative use of automated gaze detection technology.
The Baby Toolbox allows researchers and clinicians to track normative developmental progress and identify areas of concern that may require intervention by providing developmental assessments that are reliable, easy to use and accessible.