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Mental Wellness

Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation

Strategies & Support for Healthy Development

Our Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) service equips caregivers to strengthen children’s social, emotional, and behavioral health development—early and before intervention is needed.

We recognize the importance of early experience to build the foundation for healthy later life outcomes, which is why we provide mental health consultation in support of infants and toddlers, ages 0-36 months of age.

Our early childhood mental health consultant services are culturally sensitive and family focused, with consultants promoting social-emotional development while working to address a child’s challenging behavior. Based on relationship-based practices, we employ skill- and relationship-building efforts with the adults in a child’s life. Our collaborative approach is coordinated between group/family child care providers, classroom teachers, program administrators, and the mental health consultant.

Our Program Approaches

Our Program Approach

Child/Family

This program focuses on helping adults understand and address the child’s needs by developing an individualized plan with the parents, providers, and home visitors.

Our Program Approach

Classroom/Group

In this program, we work with child care providers, teachers, and home visitors to improve care offered to all children by helping to identify and address attitudes, beliefs, practices, and conditions that may be undermining quality relationships between children and adults.

Our Program Approach

Programmatic

This approach supports administrators, directors, home visitors, and other program leaders in making changes in their care practices and/or policies to the benefit of all children and adults in their setting.

Our Six-Step Method

Our infant and early childhood mental health consultants work to create a bridge between classrooms and home by providing support for families—in either or both settings. As our consultants work with directors, staff, parents, care givers, and others to provide resources and technical assistance, they are guided by the following six steps:

  1. Initiation: getting to know the child
  2. Needs Assessment: discovering what support would be ideal for the children or adults
  3. Collaborative Action Planning: working with adults and decision makers to set forth a plan of support
  4. Implementation: putting the plan into action
  5. Transition & Sustainability: evaluating the effectiveness of the plan & its likelihood of long term success
  6. Monthly Communities of Practice: meeting frequently with all involved individuals to ensure effectiveness and enhance plans for the future

By taking a prevention-based approach that’s guided by a mental health professional, we are effectively able to build, support, and sustain the healthy social and emotional development of young children.

What to Expect

  • Collaborative Conversations
    We take the time to thoroughly discuss the roles of both our consultants as well as the teacher/provider who is working with the child.
  • Observation Exploration
    Throughout your visit, we will be using various observation methods and tools to identify and prioritize the child’s concerns before setting potential goals.
  • Evaluations & Assessments
    We will gather data about the classroom environment, the child’s behavior in the given environment, and quality interactions during our observation period.
  • Shared Resources
    Whether it is for the classroom teacher, the program, or a family, our consultants are eager to share information, community resources, and referrals to create better outcomes for the child in question.

We’re looking forward to collaborating with you to provide this support for your infant or toddler. Our mental health professionals work with all childcare programs to provide a caring, compassionate, responsive, and effective experience to meet each child’s individual needs. 

Child Care Council’s IECMHC program is part of a statewide model of quality infant toddler mental health consultation.

View Our Padlet Resources

Ready to Get Started?

In our commitment to nurturing healthy early childhood development, our infant and early childhood mental health resources play a pivotal role. We understand that fostering emotional and behavioral well-being in infants and toddlers is crucial for their future. Our early childhood mental health consultants are dedicated to providing culturally sensitive, family-focused support to caregivers and children. By employing relationship-based practices, we collaborate closely with caregivers, teachers, and program administrators to enhance social-emotional development and address challenging behaviors.

Recent News

GCSD’s KidsCare Becomes First School-Based Child Care Program in the State to Implement Social-Emotional Development Model

February 12 2024

For the first time, Child Care Council Inc. is collaborating with a school-based child care program in New York to implement the Pyramid Model of social-emotional development. The Pyramid Model is an evidence-based framework proven effective in building social and emotional competence in early care and education programs by promoting positive behavior and well-being in […]

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