Understanding Early Childhood Mental Health: A Practical Guide for Professionals

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Integrating infant mental health services into early education programs leads to better child outcomes and stronger parent child relationships. This accessible textbook provides early childhood professionals and programs clear answers to weaving best practices in mental health into their everyday work. Ideal for preservice university courses, in-service professional development, and program administrators, this introductory text combines the authoritative guidance of more than a dozen respected mental health and early childhood experts. Professionals will get a primer on infant mental health, strengthening their knowledge of key issues such as screening and assessment, attachment, emotional dysregulation and aggression, risk and resilience, maternal depression, and children s exposure to trauma. Then they ll get practical, research-based guidance they can use to recognize indicators of mental health problems in young children; promote parents and caregivers mental health; build on child and family strengths and mitigate risk factors; conduct sound program evaluations; and work effectively with outside mental health consultants.With this highly readable introduction to key mental health principles, the next generation of early childhood professionals will fully understand the latest research and best practice so they can support optimal caregiver-child relationships, enhance professional collaboration, and strengthen child development.

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Susan Janko Summers, Ph.D., is an ethnographic researcher interested in how to best serve high risk children and families through interventions and improved social and educational policy. Rachel-Chazan Cohen, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology at George Mason University in Virginia.