What is the Newborn Behavioral Observations system?

The Newborn Behavioral Observations system is a structured set of observations designed to help the clinician and parent together, to observe the infant's behavioral capacities and identify the kind of support the infant needs for his successful growth and development.

The NBO system consists of a set of 18 neurobehavioral observations, which describe the newborn's capacities and behavioral adaptation from birth to the third month of life. While it describes the infant's capacities, the NBO provides parents with individualized information about their infant's behavior, so that they can appreciate their baby's unique competencies and vulnerabilities and thereby understand and respond to their baby, in a way that meets her/his developmental needs. The 18 NBO items include observations of the infant's capacity to habituate to external light and sound stimuli (sleep protection)
the quality of motor tone and activity level capacity for self-regulation (including crying and consolability) response to stress (indices of the infant's threshold for stimulation)visual, auditory and social-interactive capacities (degree of alertness and response to both human and non-human stimuli)

http://www.brazelton-institute.com/clnbas.html