Understanding Early Childhood Mental Health: A Practical Guide for Professionals

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 very young children, including emotional dysregulation and behavioral and developmental changes
• promote parents' and caregivers' mental health through direct and indirect supports, including regular mental health screening, community partnerships with mental health providers, and parent education
• build on child and family strengths and mitigate risk factors such as poverty and violence
• strengthen parent–child relationships and interactions through play and effective caregiving routines
• maintain their own mental health, building positive relationships with co-workers and reducing the effects of compassion fatigue and secondary stress
• participate in reflective supervision to sharpen their ability to think critically and solve problems
• conduct sound program evaluation that includes the input of families, staff, and the surrounding culture and community
work effectively with outside mental health consultants when child and family needs extend beyond the program's scope

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.

• Case Studies in Infant Mental Health: Risk, Resiliency, and Relationships
• Family Engagement in Early Childhood Settings (Redleaf Quick Guide)
• Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: Core Concepts and Clinical Practice
• The Developmental Science of Early Childhood: Clinical Applications of Infant Mental Health Concepts From Infancy Through Adolescence
• Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence
• Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood: DC: 0-5
• The Emotional Life of the Toddler
• Infant and Toddler Development from Conception to Age 3: What Babies Ask of Us
• Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (Multicultural Education Series)
• Understanding Families: Supportive Approaches to Diversity, Disability, and Risk, Second Edition