Avaliação do repertório comportamental de bebês nos quatro primeiros meses de vida: uma proposta de análise

The present project intended to evaluate the development of 40 babies, using Inventario Portage Operacionalizado (IPO), during the first four months of life. In this period the project evaluated the occurrence, in each month, of 45 behaviors listed in the protocol of Infant Stimulation. This evaluation intended to identify frequency differences of these behaviors in each month. The monthly evaluations occurred in a date close to each baby's month anniversary. The babies came from a maternity hospital that attends on users of the SUS (Brazil's National Health System). The obtained results pointed to the existence of typical (stabilized) behaviors and probable (normalized) behaviors for each month. For this analysis the criteria were: conditions of stabilization (if the behavior occurred in more than 75% of the sample), normalization (if 25% to 75% of the sample presented it) and appearance (less than 25% of the babies presented it) in each month. In the first month, the babies presented 25% (stabilization) of the 45 evaluated behaviors. Of the remaining ones, the babies presented 26% in the second month. In the third month, of the behaviors that were still not stabilized the babies presented 36% and, in the fourth month, they presented 44% of the remaining ones. Such results allow us to conclude that a lower number of evaluated behaviors would facilitate the process of evaluation of babies and the orientation given to parents, resulting in economy of time and less stress for parents and caregivers. Studies conducted with bigger populations can validate these results.