Meeting the emotional needs of infants and toddlers in foster care: The collaborative mental health care experience

This paper describes a partnership between an infant mental health consultation program and child welfare authorities, with a special focus on the use of a consultation model to support infants and toddlers in foster care. The authors describe a model of practice that incorporates the transactional model with a developmental perspective to help foster parents understand and address the emotional needs of these children. The clinical implications section reviews strategies for addressing attachment and relationship disturbances, promoting self‐regulation, and enhancing social competence in infants and young foster children.     

Consultation to the court in infant/toddler custody cases

This paper describes a special component of an infant mental health program wherein infants are referred by the Department of Social Services for assessment and treatment. The infants in these cases are frequently in foster care and under court supervision for abuse and neglect. This paper describes the special role of the infant mental health specialist in establishing a working alliance with the family and in providing consultation to the Department of Social Services and the court. Note is made of the role of the infant mental health specialist within the legal system.     

A new approach for training infant intervention specialists

This paper describes a new approach to training infant specialists. A joint Master's degree program, based in graduate schools of public health and education, emphasizes cross-disciplinary coursework in maternal and child health and special education. The program emphasizes the importance of forging crucial linkages among the different disciplines and agencies that care for handicapped and at-risk infants. The program emphasizes improved skills in assessing, planning, and intervening on behalf of infants at risk for developmental delays or with severe or multiple handicaps; the ability to work with families; and the ability to develop and appraise community resources.     

Programmable calculator as timer,storer, and decision maker in psychology experiments

This paper describes how a portable programmable calculator can be used to time behavior, to store time values from successive trials, and to perform criterial calculations on a trial-by-trial basis. A specific application for visual habituation studies in infants is described and an exemplary program, currently in use, is listed.     

The prematurity stereotype: Empirical evidence and implications for practice

The prematurity stereotype is defined as a set of biased beliefs about infants who are identified as having been born prematurely. This article reviews studies that have explored how this prematurity stereotype may negatively influence adults' perceptions of, expectations for, and behavior toward premature infants. The findings from these studies are considered in the context of more general knowledge about how expectations can influence behavior and result in self-fulfilling prophecies. Recent research designed to investigate how prematurity stereotyping can be reduced also is described and evaluated. Finally, the implications of this program of research for intervention with parents of premature infants and suggestions for future research directions are discussed.     

The transactional model of early home intervention

This article describes a developmental model for early home intervention and treatment of environmentally and biologically at-risk infants and their parents: The Transactional Model of Home Intervention. The model identifies the development of both infants and parents as targets of intervention and considers their ongoing interactions or transactions within the family context as the vehicle of intervention. The child and his physical/social environment are conceptualized as actively influencing one another in their reciprocal transactions. An early intervention program based on this transactional model is described. The intervention is tailored to suit the needs of both child and parents and, more generally, the needs of the family. The intervention process involves a problem-solving model of education by which parents acquire cognitive strategies that will enable them to assess the needs of their child and to design a program to fulfill these needs.     

Parent education in the public school: The parent and preschooler's program

The public school is discussed as a milieu in which to provide parent education for parents of preschool children. Primary prevention within the public school setting is designated as a means by which many children and families can be reached while the mental health of infants and young children is addressed as an integral concern of the community. The Parent and Preschooler's Program is described as an example of the implementation of a preschool parent education program in a public school which was initiated by community members and is eagerly supported by the school system.     

Home-based intervention for infants with developmental disorders

A hom-based therapeutic program for infants with developmental disorders is described. The program is used at the Institute for Psychophysiological and Speech Disorders, Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Significant changes in infant developmental competence provide support for the use of parents as direct intervention agents for their infants. Positive changes in marital and family relationships are important side effects of parent involvement in the therapeutic habilitation of their children.     

Stimulation of premature infants: The boundary between believing and knowing

Over the past two decades, technological and medical advances have resulted in increasing survival and decreasing morbidity for infants who are termed high risk due to prematurity and associated factors. As professionals began to turn their attention toward optimizing the long-term outcome for these infants, a number of pro̧grams collectively known as “infant stimulation” programs were developed. The design and implementation of these programs initially were based on findings from the basic sciences that indicated that environmental enrichment positively affected the immature nervous system, whereas environmental deprivation had adverse effects. Subsequent clinical research that analyzed the effects of stimulation programs for infants in high-risk nurseries has shown beneficial effects of varying types of stimulation on numerous dependent measures. Recently, however, some practitioners have cautioned against viewing these results as conclusive. This article is a review of multi-disciplinary research relevant to infant stimulation programs and includes a critical analysis of research findings and future needs. This analysis leads to the conclusion that many infant stimulation programs have been designed and implemented based on potentially invalid assumptions. Further research is needed prior to establishing what constitutes an optimal infant stimulation program.     

Developmental effects of an intervention for preterm infants of teenage mothers

Since preterm infants and infants born to teenage mothers are noted to be at risk for developmental delays, a group of infants who were both preterm and born to teenage mothers was provided a sensorimotor exercise intervention program for the first year of infancy. The development of these infants was compared to the development of preterm infants without intervention and term infants of teenage mothers as well as term and preterm infants of adult mothers to determine the degree to which developmental delays were prevented. The intervention infants showed more optimal growth, cognitive development, temperament and play behaviors during interactions with their mothers across the first year of development.     

A postpartum telephone program of reassurance,information, and early intervention in a family practice

This paper presents a program developed in a family practice office to provide reassurance, guidance, and early detection and intervention for mothers and their new infants in the first month of the infant's life. Telephone calls from an office nurse at 2 weeks of age followed by a written questionnaire demonstrated a dichotomy between the mothers' expressions of their physical and emotional problems. Feeding was the most prominently expressed concern, but we also found that complaints or worries about feeding were also an acceptable way to initiate intervention for more serious problems.     

The effects of sound duration on newborns' head orientation

Two experiments assessed the importance of sound duration for eliciting head orientation responses from newborn infants. In Experiment 1, thirty infants turned with equal frequency toward 20-s continuous rattle sounds and 20-s trains of rattle segments. The duration of the rattle segments--14 and 100 ms (2/s), or 500 ms (1/s)--did not influence the likelihood of turning. Response latencies and durations proved quite similar for all stimuli. In Experiment 2, twenty-four infants heard continuous rattle sounds of four different durations: 1, 5, 10, and 20 s. They turned reliably to all stimulus durations; furthermore, the magnitude and temporal characteristics of head orientation responses did not differ for the four stimulus durations. These results suggest that the newborn's head orientation response may reflect a motor program that is initiated by auditory input and then executed in a similar fashion regardless of further stimulation.     

The influence of selected variables on maternal perceptions of their infants at one month

The research reported here is an analysis of selected factors associated with the positive and negative perceptions of mothers toward their infants at one month. The data were collected as part of the larger evaluation of the Perinatal Positive Parenting program. In addition to the treatment or control status of the mother, age of mother, birth weight of the infant, one-minute APGAR score, and opportunity for mother-infant physical contact in the delivery room were included in the analyses. Significant differences were found for the APGAR score groups. A backward elimination regression technique found APGAR score, birth weight, and age of mother to be predictive of maternal perceptions.     

The Innateness Hypothesis and Mathematical Concepts

In historical claims for nativism, mathematics is a paradigmatic example of innate knowledge. Claims by contemporary developmental psychologists of elementary mathematical skills in human infants are a legacy of this. However, the connection between these skills and more formal mathematical concepts and methods remains unclear. This paper assesses the current debates surrounding nativism and mathematical knowledge by teasing them apart into two distinct claims. First, in what way does the experimental evidence from infants, nonhuman animals and neuropsychology support the nativist hypothesis? Second, granting that infants have some elementary mathematical skills, does this mean that such skills play an important role in the development of mathematical knowledge?     

A model‐based intervention for depressed mothers and their infants

Many studies have reported on the adverse effects of maternal depression on offspring. Infants of depressed mothers are found to be more likely at risk to develop mental and socioemotional problems. In this study, an early intervention program is presented that aims to improve the interaction between depressed mothers and their infants to prevent developmental problems in the children. The program has recently been introduced in the Dutch Community Mental Health Centers as part of a national multicomponent program to reduce the risk of psychiatric and social problems in the offspring of parents with a mental disorder. The intervention for depressed mothers with babies is based on a transactional model in which the mother–child interaction plays a key role in explaining the development of socioemotional problems in the children. The model as discussed in the first part of this article addresses a range of evidenced‐based parental, child, and contextual risk factors that effect the quality of the interactions between depressed mothers and their infants and that contribute to both vulnerability and resilience of the children during later childhood and adolescence. ©2005 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Integrating early parent-infant psychosocial support into neighborhood health clinics: An ecological intervention

A program of early psychosocial support for low-income parents and infants was established at an inner-city family health center. Such a program meets many of the criteria of successful early psychological intervention by (1) beginning during the prenatal period and extending through the first 3 years of life, (2) providing professional and peer support to the parent-infant system, (3) responding to the social as well as psychological needs of low-income parents, and (4) embedding preventive intervention into an accessible neighborhood setting.     

Preventive intervention with infants and families: The NBAS model

A model for preventive intervention based on the use of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) is presented, and the conceptual framework underlying this approach is made explicit. The approach is based on the assumption that the neonatal period presents clinicians with a unique opportunity to influence parent-infant relations positively from the beginning. It is argued that especially under conditions of stress, this infant-centered but family-focused form of intervention can serve to prevent the compounding of problems that may occur when the caregiving environment is unable to adjust to the needs of the young infant. The aim of the NBAS-based approach is to sensitize parents to the communication cues and the unique adaptive capacities of their infants. It is the individualized nature of the NBAS-based approach that places it outside the domain of main-effects treatment modalities and renders it responsive to the particular needs of individual infants and their families. The model of intervention described herein is based on the development of a supportive therapeutic relationship between clinicians and parents and as such may serve as the first stage in a comprehensive follow-up program of support for infants and families. Guidelines for clinicians using the NBAS in clinical settings that follow from these assumptions are provided.     

Children's Developmental Services: A Multidisciplinary Program of Psychological and Educational Services for Neonatal Intensive Care

Psychologists, counselors, and educators provide an innovative interdisciplinary program for hospital care and follow-up of premature infants at the University of Florida. This growing population of surviving neonates has a high risk of developmental disability, which can be reduced by developmental intervention.     

An Ecosystemic Approach to Improving Mother-Infant Attachment in a Caribbean Matrifocal Society

Within an ecosystemic framework integrating a cultural-family approach and Bowlby's attachment theory, this paper describes a mother-infant therapeutic program focusing on a high-risk population of infants from dysfunctional extended matrifocal families in the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Some of the factors involved in the disturbed mother-child attachment relationships were identified, and a multisystemic approach for remodeling both internal family processes and interactions between the family and the larger social system were described. The authors stress the importance of using a combination of specialized and non-specialized services which draw upon, and remain embedded in, the family's ecological context and argue for a conceptualization of extended matrifocal family organizations as being resourceful and resilient systems.     

Facilitating mother-infant communication: A treatment model for high-risk and developmentally-delayed infants

The relationship between mother-infant interaction and interactive communication competence in high-risk and developmentally-delayed children is examined and an inter vention program that attempts to optimize mother-infant interaction is described. Interaction patterns in populations with atypical infants are consistently found to be different from those in families with normally developing infants. The risk and delayed infants show fewer, less intense, and developmentally-delayed social responses and their mothers compensate with more frequent and often intensive forms of social interaction. An intervention model is presented that (1) evaluates the mother on a hierarchy of interaction styles that range from low to high levels of sensitivity and (2) modifies interaction style through the use of easy-to-learn techniques with the goal of moving the mother to an optimal level in the defined hierarchy of social behavior.