Progress in the management of disease in the newborn has carried with it a recognition of the substantial risk of injury to the immature nervous system. The aspiration to localise and prognosticate from neurological signs in the early newborn period is easily understood. The problem is that the signs available to be discerned are in themselves usually insufficient to allow precision. In addition, the child grows and develops, the range and complexity of skills are constantly changing, and the manifestations of the lesion(s) alters, or may become silent, often to reappear later as a different but nevertheless highly significant impairment.

The evaluation of the newborn nervous system was …