Phyllis Glink, the executive director of the Irving Harris Foundation, describes the Foundation's strategic approach to grantmaking in the infant and early childhood field. The Harris Professional Development Network evolved out of Irving Harris's growing appreciation for the importance of supporting very young children's mental health and…

Unfortunately, the term "infant mental health" can be confusing for some people because it may be understood as translating into "mental illness." Others may not appreciate that babies and toddlers have the capacity to experience complex emotions. The Guest Editors of this issue of the Journal explore the meaning of infant mental health.

To create a just and equitable society for the infants and toddlers with whom its members work, the infant mental health field must intentionally address some of the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other inequities embedded in society. The Diversity-Informed Infant Mental Health Tenets, presented and discussed here, are guiding principles…

The Diversity-Informed Infant Mental Health Tenets provide guidelines for addressing inequities in American society. Embedding the Tenets into infant mental health systems requires intentionality and careful consideration. With the use of vignettes, this article examines each Tenet and how infant mental health practitioners, agencies, and systems…

As the infant mental health workforce expands to meet the needs of increasingly diverse families and communities, leaders of the work--most often, supervisors in community settings--should be responsive to and reflective of the ethnic or cultural backgrounds of those served. The Reflective Supervision Training Program described addresses an…

Developing a sustainable, competent workforce is an urgent and challenging task for the Infant Mental Health (IMH) field. In this article, the authors share their experiences and perspectives on the importance of and challenges in the development of the IMH workforce. The broad view of both workforce members and professional development…

Child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), an evidence-based dyadic therapeutic intervention for very young children exposed to trauma, is becoming the go-to therapeutic intervention for infant mental health practitioners. Although CPP has been shown to be effective for rebuilding the parent-child relationship, reducing trauma symptoms, and reducing…

The Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers (MISC) model is a comprehensive developmental approach to help adults understand their role in child development by enhancing the quality of adult-child interactions. This article describes how the Irving B. Harris Program for Infants, Toddlers and Their Families at Bar-Ilan University…

Early child development professionals naturally prefer playgrounds and classrooms to legislative arenas; however, their strengths, skills, knowledge, and data are sorely needed by policymakers who rely on those closest to an issue--the advocates, researchers, program directors, and consumers--to give them evidence of need and guidance toward…

Thinking beyond physical health to include mental health and emotional well-being offers the pediatric clinician different approaches to old challenges and a new lens through which to view infant and parent behavior. Because pediatric primary care is accessible, universally available, has no entrance criteria, and is nonstigmatizing, clinicians…

Scientific advances in the knowledge of the brain and its functioning are considerable and undeniably useful in child mental health. At the same time, however, observational research on a longitudinal basis is demonstrating the importance of the family environment in a child's early years on adolescent and adult outcomes. Environmental influences…

Families with young children attend well-child visits in pediatric primary care settings frequently during the first 3 years of life and receive information and answers to questions about their young child's health and development. Integrating an infant-early childhood mental health and child development specialist into a pediatric primary care…

When parents make an unintentional mistake that harms their child, the associated guilt and grief can be overwhelming and difficult to treat. The parents described in this article unknowingly created a medical emergency when they added water to their child's formula, thinking it would help her constipation. The baby survived the trauma--but with…

Preschool-age children who have had traumatic experiences often experience several challenges as they enter school. They are frequently preoccupied with the trauma and display both externalizing and internalizing behaviors in their classrooms, significantly impairing their abilities to learn. With few additional resources and the lack of…

Infant mental health specialists are increasingly expected to treat complex mental health disorders in very young children. Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder which can lead to functional impairment across home, preschool, and community settings. The authors share their experiences with Keylah, a preschooler with significant social anxiety…