Purpose and aims our aim with this consensus statement is therefore to counter misinformation and help steer family court applications of attachment theory in a supportive evidence based direction on matters related to child protection and custody decisionsthere are already various papers offering guidance for court practice based on attachment theory and research eg byrne et al 2005 . Gilbert m foley in autism 360 2020 the i individual differences individual differences in activity level reactivity to stimuli rhythmicity of biological cycles such as sleep and hunger perceptual acuity etc all subsumed under the construct of temperament in part define individual differences within the typical range increasingly research findings support that children . Rl canfield ta jusko in encyclopedia of infant and early childhood development second edition 2008 specific cognitive and neuropsychological functions intelligence test scores reflect a sort of average of a persons performance on multiple individual subtests each assessing competence in a general domain of cognitive functioning. Environment plays an important role in shaping development from the newborn period through adolescence many individual environmental risk factors may impinge on development poverty mental illness minority status and many others but the most detrimental effects are caused when multiple risk factors act on a single infant these effects were revealed by the rochester longitudinal study