Understanding Infant Mental Health Summers & Chazan-Cohen, Chapter 1

Definitions…what is it?  What is Infant Mental Health?  Infant mental health is the developing capacity of the child from birth to age 3 to:  experience, regulate, and express emotions;  form close and secure interpersonal relationships; and  explore the environment and learn--  all in the context of family, community, and cultural expectations for young children.  What is Social Emotional Development?  The developing capacity of the child from birth through five:  to form close and secure relationships;  experience, regulate, and express emotions in socially and culturally appropriate ways; and  explore the environment and learn;  all in the context of family, community, and culture.  Infant mental health is synonymous with healthy social emotional development.  Handout-What is Infant Mental Health? Adapted from ZERO TO THREE, 2001/2002

Why is Attachment so Important?  A secure emotional attachment with their parents is natural and rewarding for infants  The caregiver is the essential partner & the MOST influential context  Attachment provides the springboard for healthy exploration of environment so infants can learn about the world around them.  When children do not have this attachment, they experience social emotional challenges that compromise their development  challenging temperament  trouble sleeping and calming  parents who are stressed, lack resources & social support, endure poverty, have mental illness

Prevention vs Treatment?  Prevention is what parents & caregivers do when they provide guidance & redirection of emerging behaviors that might grow into issues of emotional or behavioral concerns.  Treatment is what mental health professionals provide to address a mental health issue that requires a systematic and sometimes therapeutic intervention.

Environmental Influences on Infant Mental Health  The immediate well-being of the infant is highly contingent upon the security of their relationships & experiences and the health & stability of the broader environment in which they live.  Compromised Development  an infant lagging in emotional development may also experience compromised cognitive tasks and visa versa  recurrent & excessive stress in the absence of protective relationships results in activation of body’s stress management system—increased levels of serum cortisol=disrupts brain architecture  Biological Challenges  infants born at very low birth weights, have early medical complications, multiple births=maybe difficult to parent  temperament of infant (easy, slow-to-warm, difficult)  Challenging Relationships  What is the health & well-being of the adult? Is it compromised?  increase in maternal depression  infants who lack the coping mechanisms to diffuse frustration/express emotions appropriately  At-risk Environments  families living in poverty…are less likely to have insurance, less likely to have access to high quality early childhood opportunities, more likely to experience S/E challenges, live w/the stresses of needing to provide shelter, food, & resources, more family turmoil & violence, instability, chaotic households, less social support, parents are less responsive & more authoritarian, watch more TV, less access to books and computers, air and water is more polluted, low-income neighborhoods are more dangerous

Stress in Early Childhood  What is toxic stress?  resulting from “stressful events that are chronic, uncontrollable, and/or experienced without the child having access to support from caring adults” –Dorian Friedman  When humans experience stress, the brain naturally produces chemical & neural responses—designed to help w/survival  when children experience ongoing stressful events that are “toxic,” the body provokes the stress response & it alters the brain functioning  Toxic stress can lead to irreparable damage!  How can we prevent/reduce toxic stress in children?  help to build supportive relationships is the key to minimizing toxics stress and making it tolerable for children & families  We will talk A LOT more about toxic stress in Week 5 when we discuss maternal depression, adversity, and trauma

Activity: Social Emotional Climate  CSEFEL Module 2 Handouts 2.6 Child Care in America (6 photos)  Break into groups. Read the information on your slide. Discuss within your group. Share specific feedback about the time young children spend in child care and the impact of quality care on later child development. What is your responsibility in contributing to the quality of care infants and toddlers receive?  Take-Away points:  Evidence demonstrates that high quality standards for children, professionals and programs leads to better outcomes for young children.  As early care and learning professionals, it is critical to offer infants and toddlers positive experiences in every setting in which they spend time in order to ensure positive outcomes for the future.  What Does Social Emotional Climate Mean to You?  taking a closer look at how the physical environment, schedules and routines support the social emotional development of infants and toddlers; it is important to understand different perspectives on program quality and specifically on the social emotional climate of the program.  CSEFEL Module 2 Handout 2.7 Social Emotional Climate (Summers) (Activity=yellow, green, blue, purple paper)  Ask individual participants to think about what they consider to be five of the most crucial factors of the social emotional climate in infant-toddler care from the perspective indicated by the color of their paper.  Yellow = You are an infant or toddler  Blue = You are a parent of an infant or toddler  Purple = You are an infant-toddler caregiver  Green = You are an administrator of an infant-toddler Program

Some possible answers could be…  Yellow = Infant/toddler perspective: warm, comfortable, nurturing, calm, interesting, safe, positive, responsive to individual needs, etc.  Blue = Parent of an infant or toddler: safe, nurturing, loving, welcoming, comfortable, respectful of my culture and perspectives, responsive  Purple = Infant toddler caregiver: supportive, respectful, encouraging, helpful, friendly, positive  Green = Administrator: committed staff, happy families, professional staff, happy children, children who can express their needs and receive individualized care and understanding * This exercise helps us recall and summarize the key elements of a program that strongly support infants and toddlers’ social emotional development. Note that administrators, families, caregivers, infants and toddlers may have similar or slightly different ideas about what creates a positive social emotional climate.