| Description |
This presentation will explore Infant Mental Health concepts and their application to the providers working with children who are deaf or hard of hearing. The incorporation of Infant Mental Health supports, according the 2019 JCIH position statement, can help address elevated life stressors among parents (which can affect bonding/attachment), and can build skills in maternal sensitivity as an intervention. But what are infant mental health supports and how can we best integrate them into EHDI? Infant, Early Childhood, and Family Mental Health (aka IMH) is an interdisciplinary, evidence-based framework for approaching early intervention and home visiting which optimizes social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development in the context of the parent-child relationship. It even has operationalized processes for addressing burnout and vicarious trauma among providers (i.e. parent-providers/parent guides, Deaf role models, and EHDI coordinators). In this session, we will explore the intersections and application of IMH to the EHDI system. IMH concepts and tools/interventions like "parallel process", intergenerational trauma, emotion coaching, social-emotional development, the Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment, resilience, the parent-child relationship, and Reflective Supervision/Consultation in the specific context of working with infants, toddlers, and young children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
|