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Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health(IECMH): Promoting resilience across a lifetimeAugust, 2019

Dorinda Silver Williams, PhD, LICSW

Georgetown University, Center for

Child and Human Development

dw831@Georgetown.edu

Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH)

What does that mean?

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Why the stakes are so high

• Extraordinary development

• Foundational• Comprehensive• Rapid

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Early development across multiple domains

Social emotional development

Language development

Cognitive development

Physical development

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Brain connections and plasticity

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The power of relationships

Photo credit: Shutterstock

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“There is no such thing as a baby.”Winnicott, 1964, p. 88

“There is no such thing as a baby.”Winnicott, 1964, p. 88

…if you set out to describe a baby, you will find you are describing a baby and someone

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Early relationships

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=still+face&view=detail&mid=6E971D60A22761B62BFF6E971D60A22761B62BFF&FORM=VIRE3

Attachment

Developing a relational templateAinsworth, 1978; Bowlby, 1988

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Secure attachment

– Secure base

– Contingent on parent’s physical and emotional

availability

– Secure base

– Internal working model

Ainsworth, 1978; Bowlby, 1988

Slade, Grienenberger, Bernbach, Levy, & Locker, 2005

Ainsworth, 1978; Bowlby, 1988

Other styles of attachment

Anxious attachment

Avoidant attachment

Disorganized attachment

Ainsworth, 1978;

Main & Solomon, as cited in Posada, Waters, Crowell, & Lay, 1995

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Reflective functioning

Reflective functioning

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Reflective functioning

Reflective functioning

Secure attachment

Reflective functioning

Secure attachment

Intergenerational resilience

Slade, Grienenberger, Bernbach, Levy, & Locker, 2005

Our to-do list for

parents

• Be emotionally present

• Be sensitive and attuned

• Respond contingently

• Foster routines and

predictability

• Co-regulate

• Experience joyful

interactions

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What parents/caregivers might

be, or have been, experiencing

• Social injustice

• Poverty

• Domestic violence

• Community violence

• Mental health challenges

• Developmental and/or complex trauma

• Limited social support

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Relationships reverberate

Home visitor

and parent/

caregiver

Creating a safe, trusting, and nurturing relationship with parents can help

parents create a safe, trusting, and nurturing relationships with their young

children

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Our to-do list for home

visitors

• Be emotionally present

• Be sensitive and attuned

• Respond contingently

• Foster routines and

predictability

• Co-regulate

• Experience joyful

interactions

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Relationships reverberate

Home visitor

and parent/

caregiver

Home visitor

and

supervisor

and/or peerPhoto credit: Pixabay

Creating a safe, trusting, and nurturing relationship with home

visitors can help home visitors to create a safe, trusting, and

nurturing relationship with parents, which can help parents create

a safe, trusting, and nurturing relationship with their young

children

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Thank you for all that you do on behalf of children and families P

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References

Ainsworth, M. D., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: Assessed in the strange situation and at home. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. Basic Books.

Slade, A., Grienenberger, J., Bernbach, J., Bernbach, E., & Locker, A. (2005). Maternal reflective functioning, attachment, and the transmission gap: A preliminary study. Attachment & Human Development, 7(3), 283 – 298.

Winnicott, D. (1964) Further thoughts on babies as persons. In The child, the family, and the outside world (pp. 85-92). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1947)