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We are grateful to Elizabeth Urban for her comments on our original article (JAP, , 55, 3, 321-58). However her response neglects the importance of the constantly changing contexts in which all infant observations take place. In our reply, we will develop this view using the experience of our group, as previously described. We aim to expand the standard model of infant observation in which it was believed that the development of the infant could be studied by focusing on the infant alone rather than considering the range of nested contexts in which the infant is situated, occurring in the infant's presence and absence both inside and outside the home (Horne 2007).
Urban restates standards for framing the observation utilizing the classic method developed by Esther Bick, which became known as The Tavistock Model of Infant Observation. This strictly framed approach eliminates consideration of all other contexts that do not involve the infant per se as elements of the infant's own developmental process, thus disregarding the myriad events taking place in any observation - including the shifting elements that take place within the context of the infant observation group itself - the centrepiece of our paper.
Bick's original purpose in bringing this method to the Tavistock Clinic was that of training analytic candidates to observe, to develop awareness of transference and countertransference phenomena and to attend to affective states within the observer as well as within the baby and family. While valuing the original Bick method, we have followed with interest the changes occurring within the Tavistock whereby innovative and progressive extensions of that method have been developing over time. Such changes have introduced interventional observational work as well as applications of this method of observation to other settings as discussed at the 5th International Conference for Teachers of Infant Observation in a Globalised World, held in 2009 at the Tavistock in London.