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The effectiveness of the NIDCAP approach has been extensively and rigorously evaluated
by researchers from multiple disciplines using many different evaluation methods.

The following are a representative sample of the scientific studies which document
how NIDCAP supports families, improves the care provided by the healthcare team
and ultimately improve infant development.

Theory

  • Als H (1982). Toward a synactive theory of development: Promise for the assessment and support of infant individuality. Infant Mental Health Journal. 3, 229-243.
  • Gilkerson L, Als H (1995). Role of reflective process in the implementation of developmentally supportive care in the newborn intensive care nursery. Infants and Young Children. 7, 20-28.
  • Als H (1999). Reading the premature infant. In Goldson E (ed.) Nurturing the Premature Infant: Developmental Interventions in the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery. New York: Oxford University Press, 18-85.

Research

  • Als H, Lawhon g, Duffy FH, McAnulty GB, Gibes-Grossman R & Blickman JG (1994). Individualized developmental care for the very low-birth-weight preterm infant: Medical and neurofunctional effects. Journal of the American Medical Association. 272, 853-858 (Merenstein GB, Editorial, 890–91).
  • Buehler DM, Als H, Duffy FH, McAnulty GB, Liederman J (1995). Effectiveness of individualized developmental care for low risk preterm infants: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence. Pediatrics. 96, 923-932.
  • Fleisher BE, VandenBerg K, Constantinou J, Heller C, Benitz WE, Johnson A, Rosenthal A & Stevenson DK (1995). Individualized developmental care for very low birthweight premature infants. Clinical Pediatrics. 34, 523-529.
  • Kleberg A, Westrup B, Stjernqvist K, & Lagercrantz H. (2002). Indication of improved cognitive development at one year of age among infants born very prematurely who received care based on the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP®). Early Human Development. 68, 83-91.
  • Als H, Gilkerson L, Duffy FH, McAnulty GB, Buehler, DM, VandenBerg KA, Sweet N, Sell E, Parad RB, Ringer S A, Butler S, Blickman JG & Jones KJ (2003). A three-center randomized controlled trial of individualized developmental care for very low birth weight preterm infants: Medical, neurodevelopmental, parenting and caregiving effects. Journal of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. 24(6), 399-408.
  • Als H, Duffy FH, McAnulty GB, Rivkin MJ, Vajapeyam S, Mulkern, RV, Warfield S, Hüppi P, Butler S, Conneman N, Fischer C & Eichenwald E (2004). Early experience alters brain function and structure. Pediatrics. 113(4), 846-857.
  • Catelin C, Tordjman S, Morin V, Oger E & Sizun, J (2005). Clinical, physiologic, and biologic impact of environmental and behavioral interventions in neonates during a routine nursing procedure. Journal of Pain. 6(12), 791-797.
  • Peters K, Rosychuk R, Hendson L, Cote J, MacPherson C, Tyebkhan J (2009). Improvement of short- and long-term outcomes for very low birth weight infants: Edmonton NIDCAP trial. Pediatrics.124, 1009-1020.
  • McAnulty GB, Duffy FH, Butler SC, Bernstein JH, Zurakowski D, & Als H (2010). Effects of the newborn individualized developmental care and assessment program (NIDCAP) at age 8 years: Preliminary data. Clinical Pediatrics. 49(3): 258-270.

Caregiving

  • Lawhon g (2002). Facilitation of parenting the premature infant within the newborn intensive care unit. Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing. 16(1), 71-82.
  • Browne JV (2004). Early relationship environments: Physiology of skin-to-skin contact for parents and their preterm infants. In R.D. White (ed) The sensory environment of the nicu: Scientific and design-related aspects. Clinics in Perinatology. 31, 287-298.
  • Ross, ES (2008). Feeding in the nicu and issues that influence success. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Division 13, 17(3), 94-100.