Infant and Toddler Mental Health : Models of Clinical Intervention with Infants and Their Families

In their every-day clinical work, child mental health clinicians are confronted with infants (children under three years of age) that exhibit emotional and behavioural difficulties. In most American states there is a mandate to identify and intervene when infants have developmental or risk factors. In some states, there is movement toward mandatory mental health evaluation of infants who enter foster care (such as Florida). Child clinicians in general have very little opportunity to be exposed to training in infant mental health, and particularly on the difficult question of "what to do" - how to intervene clinically. What are appropriate methods for different disorders, infants and families? This work deals with the most common and important problems in infant psychopathology (problems with trauma, sleep, feeding, excessive crying, attachment disruptions and so on) and how to evaluate them and treat them in infancy. It has an emphasis on the practical and "real world" problems, including those of multi-problem families under a great deal of stress. The models of intervention described here start from pregnancy through infancy; attachment issues and transgenerational themes are also covered. Experts from several countries share their clinical work and discuss clinical material presented to them.