Infant Mental Health: Attachment Theory

The growing field of early childhood and infant mental health is based on a large body of research that confirms the critical importance of healthy early development on a number of outcomes including social, emotional, cognitive and psychological functioning across the life course. For infants and young children, healthy development means healthy early relationships. When young children experience close and caring relationships, their brains, bodies and social capacities grow and mature. When they do not, their capacity to form connections with others and learn about the world in ways that promote school readiness is compromised. This online course focuses on the ways in which parents and caretakers nurture young children to provide the building blocks for their healthy development and what happens when healthy early caretaking is absent or compromised.

Course Objectives:

• Understand the importance of early relationships in the lives of infants, toddlers and young children.
• Learn ways to assess the quality of the early parent-child or caregiver-child relationship.
• Identify the ways in which early parenting influences the development of the infant, toddler and young child.

Steps to complete this course:

1. View course materials, including the main video in addition to the related videos as described on the course web page.
2. Complete the post-test and evaluation quiz.
3. Pay for the course before or after successful completion of the post-test and evaluation.

The Wayne State University School of Social Work offers this Infant Mental Health Online Course through their Continuing Education program. This course is worth 1 Continuing Education Contact Hour. Please note: Competencies® & Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant Mental Health®. This training will cover several competencies required for Endorsement®. AK-AIMH administers the Endorsement® to recognize the attainment of professional competencies in working with children 0-3. For more information about the Endorsement®, please visit our website.