Web Resources: Infant Mental Health

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Web Resources Infant Mental Health Young
Children with Challenging Behavior

1. Introduction of terms and outline of web pages
2. Exploring the resources- online and print copies
3. Suggestions for additional resources

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Infant Mental Health is the developing capacity
of the child from birth to age three to

• Experience, regulate and express emotions,
• Form close relationships and secure
  interpersonal relationships and
• Explore the environment and learn
• All in the context of family,community, and
  cultural expectations for young children. Infant
  mental health is synonymous with healthy social
  and emotional development.
• (Zero To Three)

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Challenging Behavior

• Challenging behavior is defined as any repeated
  pattern of behavior, or perception of behavior
  that interferes with or is at risk of interfering
  with optimal learning or engagement in pro-social
  interactions with peers and adults.
• Center for evidence-based Practice Young
  children with challenging behavior

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At or High Risk Children

• Young children at risk or in substantiated child
  neglect of abuse
• Combinations of other family and socio- economic
  circumstances including such things as poverty,
  teen mothers, mental health or substance abuse
  issue of parents, homelessness, violence
• Some states serve high risk children within the
  part C system others do not

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Diagnosed conditions

• Examples
• Autism Spectrum disorders
• Pre-natal drug exposure
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• Williams syndrome, Downs syndrome etc
• Speech language delays
• Developmental delays and mental retardation.
• Severe attachment disorders/ childhood depression

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Who receives services?

• Children with challenging behaviors
• Children whose challenging behavior is more
  intense and frequent
• Children with diagnosed conditions- mental
  health, DD, social emotional disturbances
• Children living in environments with risk factors
  that are known to affect growth and development.

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AND their families!

• Some programs are designed to work with child but
  involve families
• Some services are targeted to families in order
  to help children
• Some have the equal or dual focus of child and
  family unit

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Promotion, Prevention, Treatment programs for
children n AND their families

• Promotion- activities to enhance or bring about
  better adaptive competency, positive growth and
  functioning, improve self esteem, builds on
  strengths and oriented toward mastery. (wellness
  perspective)
• Prevention- attempts to forestall, avoid or deter
  the occurrence of problems or negative outcomes
  intervening before the initial onset of a
  clinically diagnosable disorder with the aim of
  reducing the consequences or the onset. Reactive
  and weakness based.
• Treatment-manage and provide care following the
  onset of a problem, disorder or condition,
  correct or remediate the problem, eliminate
  dysfunctional behavior, deficient or fragility
  based.
• (Dunst, Trivette, Thompson, 1994)

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Who provides services and supports?

• IDEA Part C and B
• Private providers- Child psychologist, counselors
• Head Start and Early Head Start
• Child Care Providers
• Home visiting parenting programs
• Special projects

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Examples of EI Services for Child/family with
Environmental Risk based upon need (IDEA)

• Service Coordination
• Family Training and Counseling
• Nutrition
• Special Instruction
• Psychological
• Social Work
• Therapies (OT,Speech, PT,AT, vision, audiology,
  health)
• Transportation

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Promising practices in early childhood mental
health include services that have the following
characteristics

• Family Centered
• Individualized
• Comprehensive
• Community based
• Coordinated
• Built on a high level of parent decision making
• Focused on developmental need
• Built on strengths and resiliency of child and
  family.
• (Vol. III Promising Practices in Early Childhood
  Mental Health)

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Lessons of Successful Programs for Families at
Risk (Lisbeth Schorr, Within our Reach)

• See the person in the context of the family and
  the family in their surroundings.
• Dont blame the person for their circumstances.
• Assume that all people have strengths and build
  on these strengths.
• Hold non-traditional views of assessment and
  intervention-linking them continually together.
• People, not professionals, drive the services and
  intervention efforts.
• Professionals are described as people who display
  care and concern, respect and can be trusted.

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Lessons continued

• Staff members and program are flexible.
• Programs offer a broad spectrum of services and
  supports in non-traditional settings and in ways
  which are coherent and easy to access.
• Programs regularly cross or even circumvent
  traditional professional and bureaucratic
  boundaries.
• For many services HOW they are delivered is as
  important as that they are delivered.
• (Lisbeth Schorr- Within our Reach

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Web Resources

• For administrators,
• For providers of services
• Classroom teachers/care givers
• For families
• On-line information, articles, research,
  strategies and connections
• http//www.nectac.org/topics/menhealth/menhealth.a
  sp