Infant mental health and Early Head Start: The glass is half full

✍ Scribed by Charles H. Zeanah

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 57 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0163-9641
• DOI: 10.1002/imhj.20133

✦ Synopsis

This special issue of the Infant Mental Health Journal provides rich and compelling evidence about the integration of infant mental health principles and practices into a vital early childhood program, Early Head Start. Through descriptive, quantitative, and qualitative data, the authors of the papers in this special issue have demonstrated some examples of the ways in which the field of infant mental health has impacted early intervention efforts-as, of course, it should. The sheer breadth of the undertaking comes across clearly, as do the challenges inherent in such an effort.

Building on the successes of Head Start, Early Head Start for more than a decade has extended services to young children and their families ͑including pregnant women͒ living in poverty. Emphasizing family and community partnerships, and delivering services flexibly through home visiting and center-based services, social and emotional aspects of young children's development have been core features of Early Head Start, making it a prime opportunity to draw from lessons of infant mental health. That this framework was consciously and carefully integrated into this effort is a tribute to the vision and wisdom of the Administration of Children, Youth, and Families and Zero to Three and their partnership.

In this commentary, I focus primarily on the issues from the perspective of the developing field of infant mental health. In considering these papers from that perspective, I have just a few reflections about accomplishments to date and about remaining challenges, as noted below: