Author: Hannah Baxter

Angela Klinefelter, MS, LMFT, IMH-E (III), is an infant mental health specialist and licensed teacher of parents and children. She provides parent education and home visiting for the St. Cloud School District Early Childhood Family Education Program. She also provides reflective consultation and training across Minnesota, specializing in the areas of social-emotional development of young children, the enhancement of parent-child relationships, and working with parents. In addition to teaching our online course on Working with Parents: Using Infant Mental Health Principles to Support Special Populations, Klinefelter authored the self-study module The Domino Effect: Parallel Process in Reflective Supervision.

Who would benefit from enrolling in this module?

Angela Klinefelter: Anybody who works with children and families can benefit from this module. The module was created with the early learning field in mind, but the content is also relevant for people who work with older children. In fact, I’d argue that it’s relevant for everyone at some level. Most concepts in infant and early childhood mental health provide opportunities for us to think more broadly about perspectives from all points of view, including our own. This is done while holding relationships in mind. This reflective lens is applicable to all relationships.

What does it mean to have a reflective lens?

Having a reflective lens is about being thoughtful, mindful, and intentional. It’s a way to transform the ways in which professionals view, wonder about, consider, understand, and respond to the families in which they serve. It’s the idea that we attend to all of the relationships within the family.

We need to feel safe to regulate our body and emotions. When parents are feeling safe and regulated, they have increased capacity to build relationships with providers. These relationships then give parents the opportunity to be reflective about parenting and their child. 

Infant mental health consultant Michelle Fallon created the “perspective pyramid.” The pyramid is a visual metaphor that helps us understand the true complexity of a system of relationships. Each corner of the pyramid represents a person within a system of relationships. 

As an example, let’s say a home visitor is working with a family where a five-year-old child is having tantrums. Using their reflective lens, the home visitor considers: “What does this situation look like through Mom’s lens? What does it look like through Dad’s lens? What does it look like to the five-year-old?” If we can have a conversation with all of the people in the perspective pyramid that takes into account their different viewpoints, we can bring everyone back to a space where we can consider what is best for the family. The facilitator—in this example, the home visitor—pulls all the different perspectives together using their infant mental health knowledge and their relationship with the parent or caregiver.

This brings us back to the concept of parallel process that we delve into in this module. If the home visitor makes the parent feel heard, then the parent in turn has greater capacity to listen to the child. And what gives the home visitor the capacity to listen and consider all perspectives? The relationship with a reflective supervisor. The supervisor creates safety and regulation in order to help the home visitor understand their own feelings so that they have the capacity to work with the family.

What drew you to reflective work in the infant and early childhood mental health field?

After graduating from college with my degree in education, I was licensed to teach Kindergarten through 6th grade. Although I’ve always been drawn to working with very young children, I was fortunate to begin my career in a combined 5th–6th grade classroom. That was also the year when my husband’s brother, who was a police officer, was killed in the line of duty. Our family tragedy occurred in January, five short months after beginning my new career. Through the chaos of that experience and the challenges of my first year of teaching, there was a student who stood out. 

With only a few days to prepare for my new job, several team members warned me about a student that would be in my class. Because of team members’ previous experiences, this student was expected to present multiple challenges. He proved to be just the opposite. He was the student who taught me that everyone deserves a chance to change their story. 

Our relationship began as I threw this student’s very large behavior report file from the previous year in the garbage, right in front of him. I wish I could say that I was being relationally intentional. The truth was that I had not had time to sort through the previous teacher’s files. The student responded with the following: “Thank you for saving my dignity.” Then he returned to his seat. That was the moment I realized I had much more to learn about understanding people than I had ever imagined. He made me think so much more deeply about relationships. I will forever be grateful he was in my class.

Relationships are my passion. Reflective practice promotes relationships. This work honors the parents and practitioners who are doing their best with what they have to improve outcomes for their families and communities. People need a sense of felt safety, more understanding, and a place for their struggles to be held by another without judgment. It just helps. Don’t we all want stronger families? They make the world a better place.

What’s the top takeaway that you hope students come away with from your module?

Understanding the parallel process is a way to increase your capacity so that you are able to continue the emotionally charged job of working with families. Because we are human, our hot buttons get pushed. Our buttons might have to do with the cleanliness of a home, a yelling parent, or an inability to nurture a young child. We may remain stuck and unable to see the parent through a different lens. Our reaction may project judgment for reasons that make sense. The parallel process reminds us that in order to strengthen the parent-child relationship, we also must consider our relationship with the parent. By doing that, we reach the child. Embracing reflective practice provides an opportunity for professionals to regulate around experiences with families—and perhaps, to reignite your sense of passion and purpose.

More news about our self-study modules.

Barbara Stroud, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and California-endorsed Infant, Family and Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist and Reflective Practice Facilitator Mentor. Stroud authored two self-study modules: Tackling the Elephants in the Room 1: Exploring Issues of Cultural Humility and Privilege and Tackling the Elephants in the Room 2: Unpacking Implicit Bias and Moving from Equity to Justice.

Stroud provides private consultation and training to the birth-to-five service community. She is also a founding organizer and past president of the California Association for Infant Mental Health and has authored several books, including How to Measure a Relationship: A Practical Approach to Dyadic Interventions, now available in Spanish. Additional resources can be found on Stroud’s YouTube channel and website. 

Who do you think would benefit from enrolling in this module?

Barbara Stroud: I think this content is valuable for any provider who works with children from birth to 10 years old and with families of children in that range. Our culture influences our identity development, supports ego functioning, and informs our relationships. We live our culture; it is an integral part of all of us. To deny another’s cultural identity or homogenize oneself and others as “all the same” is to deny oneself. Each child and each adult should be honored as the unique cultural diamond that they are in the world. My hope for participants in these modules is that they will see the cultural diamond within themselves and seek to discover it in others. 

Did you have any unexpected realizations while building the content for this module?

When working in the context of relationships, our feelings matter. We cannot truly examine issues of social injustice, equity, and implicit bias through the limited lens of cognition. These issues affect us all on multiple levels: somatically, emotionally, and cognitively. When we attempt to neatly place power, privilege, and social inequity in a cognitive box, we do a disservice to the topic and to ourselves. 

That’s why I realized that I needed to design these trainings to engage participants physically and emotionally. The modules had to “tackle the elephant in the room” from a multifaceted perspective. They needed to include somatic experiences, emotional responses, and reflective narratives.

More news about our self-study modules.

Una Majmudar, MSW, LCSW, IMH-E® is clinical director in the Division of Children, Youth, and Families, at The Health Federation of Philadelphia. She co-created the module Hand in Hand: Joining Administrative, Clinical, and Reflective Supervision Roles with Brandy Fox, LCSW, IECMH-E®, director of cross-sector IECMH initiatives for the Pennsylvania Key. In this Q & A, Majmudar shares her top takeaways from the module and reflects on what drew her to a career in infant and early childhood mental health.

Who is the main audience for your module? Who might benefit from enrolling?

Una Majmudar: This module was designed for supervisors who are balancing multiple roles. It will best suit supervisors who have some working knowledge of reflective supervision or who are already providing some reflective supervision. The goal of this module is to help them effectively integrate reflective tasks with other administrative or clinical tasks.

This module will also appeal to those who are looking to enhance their supervisory skills by adding reflective supervision. Program directors can benefit from this module by gaining insights that will make them better equipped to supervise and support managers who are balancing multiple roles. Our goal for this module is to challenge participants to think about the importance of reflection in all aspects of supervision.

What realizations did you have while building the content for this module?

The process of building this module made me reflect on so many things, including gratitude. I am profoundly grateful to those who developed reflective supervision and to those who have mentored me over the years and continue to do so. I am grateful that I work for an organization that believes deeply in the professional development of their staff. 

I remember interviewing for my first job out of graduate school, and I was reminded that the supervision you receive will be the most important aspect of your job. I hope that one day,  reflective supervision will be available for all providers in the infant and early childhood mental health field because it is absolutely best practice. The work we do is deeply meaningful and impactful. We “hold” so many infants, young children, and their families “in mind.” As supervisors, we are holding our supervisees in mind also. The notion of being held in mind by another, as described so eloquently by Jeree Paul, is the essence of our work. May we all do it with great care for those we hold—and for ourselves.    

I especially want to honor the memory of one of the pioneers of reflective supervision, Rebecca Shahmoon-Shanok, LCSW, PhD (1943-2020). Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of participating in many trainings and workshops facilitated by Rebecca. She has left a lasting impression on me as a clinician and supervisor. I will forever be grateful for her gentle, humble mentorship of myself and others in this field. You will see Rebecca highlighted in several videos in this module, and I hope you will feel the same way.  

What drew you to social work as a career and to work with young children in particular?

Why do we do the work that we do? That is always a question that involves a lot of reflection! I started my social work career working with teenagers in a residential setting and I always wondered about their early years. Graduate school confirmed for me that attachment and child-parent relationships were where I wanted to focus my career. Ultimately, my passion for Infant Mental Health clinical work really took off when I had opportunities through work to attend Zero to Three conferences. I learned about the work of Alicia Lieberman, who developed child-parent psychotherapy. 

There is something very special about witnessing the intimacy of a child-parent relationship and about supporting the dyad as they navigate and learn about each other. I am always humbled to be given the opportunity to hear stories and support journeys that promote healing. Impacting how a young child experiences the world and the relationships around them is by far the best investment we can make for our future. Sometimes that means helping to heal intergenerational traumatic experiences, and sometimes it’s as simple as supporting a family as they move into their first stable home.

What are the top three takeaways that you hope participants learn from your module?

First, reflective practice is the foundation of all aspects of supervision. Second, no matter where we are in our professional lifespan, getting support through reflective supervision or peer reflective supervision is crucial. Third, there is always room to grow and learn as a supervisor. We hope you find that spot where you can push yourself beyond your comfort zone.  

Do you have any additional thoughts you would like to share?

I’d like to say to participants that I hope this module is just a beginning for you. I hope that those who embark on this learning find themselves curious and able to be vulnerable. Doing this work is hard, challenging, rewarding, and healing all at the same time. Learning is a lifelong process during which we must be willing to reflect on ourselves, our work, our relationships. Always remember that as Jeree Pawl wrote, “How you are is as important as what you do.” Good luck, and have fun!

More news about our self-study modules.

Alyssa Meuwissen, PhD, is a Research Associate at CEED and Research Coordinator for the Reflective Practice Center (RPC). Dr. Meuwissen completed her doctorate at the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Child Development. She has worked at CEED since 2017 and is part of the team that created the Reflective Interaction Observation Scale (RIOS™), a tool for measuring components of reflective relationships. Her current research explores how reflective supervision can support early childhood professionals and the families they serve.

Q: Your research on reflective supervision has demonstrated its benefits for the early childhood workforce. What is your reflective supervision elevator pitch for people who are not familiar with it?

AM: People who work with young children and families form close relationships with those children and families as part of their job. To do this kind of relationship-based work effectively and without burning out, you need a deeper understanding of yourself. You need to be aware of your own emotions when you’re interacting with others. You need to understand how others’ behaviors show deeper meaning. Also, you need resources to help cope with the stressors and traumatic experiences that can pile up.

Reflective supervision is a model of professional support where professionals meet with a supervisor or consultant who is trained to help them process their thoughts and feelings about their work. In doing so, they are able to connect their experiences to the bigger picture of how to do effective, meaningful work. We all want our children to be well supported and cared for. We need to make sure that those doing that job are well supported and cared for as well.

Q: You worked with the Reflective Practice Center to develop the RIOS™, a tool for measuring reflective supervision relationships. Can you explain why it’s important to have a way of measuring what happens in reflective supervision sessions?

AM: The RIOS™ is an important tool, because it lets us go beyond collecting people’s own perceptions of their supervisory relationships. It is useful to know if people feel reflective supervision is helpful. We can reach a deeper understanding of the process, however, when we actually observe what occurs in the relationship. We can connect those observations to outcomes for professionals, and ultimately to outcomes for the children and families they serve.

With the RIOS™, we can measure the components of a reflective relationship. That helps us understand the importance of those components and how they lead to better outcomes for the workforce. The RIOS™ allows us to do research on how and why reflective supervision helps (or doesn’t help) groups of people. We need that kind of research to figure out how to make reflective supervision as helpful and cost effective for the workforce as we can.

Q: Your research has looked at how parents support children’s development of executive functioning and self-regulation. Could you briefly define these terms? Could you also share one or two takeaways from your research that might help parents support their children in this way?

AM: Executive functioning is a word for the brain-based skills that allow people to direct their behavior toward long-term goals. That means skills like keeping rules or goals in mind, inhibiting behavior that doesn’t serve the goals, and flexibly using strategies to reach the goals. Self-regulation is a broader concept that describes behavior in complex real-life situations. It actually includes executive function skills. It also encompasses other factors that you need to apply those skills, such as planning ahead and persevering through frustration.

One major takeaway from my research is that for children to practice and grow these skills, parents need to strike a balance between doing things for the child and letting the child flounder. On the one hand, if an activity is parent-regulated, the child doesn’t get much of a chance to practice self-regulation. But on the other hand, if the child is not supported, they may not learn much, or they may become too frustrated. The best way to support children’s development of executive function is for parents and caregivers to closely observe their child and only step in right on the border of when something is too hard for the child to manage on their own. It’s a tricky tightrope to walk!

Q: Your research on parenting has emphasized the role of fathers. What might people be surprised to learn about the role of fathers?

AM: One thing I’ve learned myself is the importance of not stereotyping or expecting people to fit neatly into categories. Parenting research has often taken such a mother-centric approach. It has treated fathers as less important, or only important in limited areas. In reality, mothers and fathers do many things the same, and they do many things differently. As with many psychological concepts, gender isn’t all that predictive of skills or interests. As long as parents are aligned in terms of major values and general structure, it is actually helpful for children to interact in different ways with different caregivers. There doesn’t have to be one “best way” to parent. The important thing is for parents to have positive, nurturing, stimulating interactions with their children. There are a thousand iterations of what that could look like, whether it’s reading quietly, wrestling on the floor, building blocks, cooking, or playing pretend. It’s OK to parent to your own personality and interests!

Q: What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work? (That’s assuming that family life with young children allows for hobbies!)

AM: I’m a mom to two girls, two and a half years old and three months old. I love spending time with them and am so grateful to see the world through their eyes. I also love reading all kinds of books, hiking and being outside, and playing the piano.

Kristina Erstad-Sankey is Director of Program Quality at CEED. She and her team work directly with early childhood education providers, such as Head Start locations, child care providers, and school districts.

Q: Can you describe some general principles of what a high-quality early childhood program looks like? 

KES: There are basic standards in areas such as health and safety—think ratios, supervision, personal care and hygiene practices, etc. There are also standards around the materials and curriculum used, program structure, furnishings, assessments, and developmentally appropriate practices. Things like funding, data use practices, and ongoing evaluation can come into play as well. 

Another important aspect of program quality has to do with the relationships among staff and families. This can mean the quality of staff interactions with children as well as the level of family involvement and inclusion. What might be less well known outside the field is that program quality can also include things like staff turnover and compensation. Another thing we look for is staff access to relationship-based professional development and training. 

You might be wondering who comes up with the standards that we use to evaluate program quality. We get guidance from quality rating and improvement systems; in Minnesota, we have Parent Aware. There are also state-based child care licensing requirements, school district standards, and Head Start standards. We also draw on information from organizations that advocate for high-quality early childhood education, such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children. 

We also refer to standards that have been set by the Minnesota Department of Education called Early Childhood Indicators of Progress. The ECIPs describe the skills and knowledge that the Department of Education expects children to acquire in early childhood. The state also describes the skills and knowledge that they expect child care professionals to exhibit in their Knowledge and Competency Framework for Educators. 

I know this might sound a little complicated, and it’s true that my team takes multiple dimensions of program quality into consideration when they do an assessment. However, the important thing to remember is that all of these standards and systems are working together to ensure that every child in Minnesota has access to early education that is meaningful to them.

Q: What is relationship-based professional development?  

KES: Relationship-based professional development (RBPD) uses an ongoing professional relationship as the mechanism for growth and positive change in an early childhood educator’s practice. This is different from the traditional model of professional development that uses one-time trainings or in-service days as the mechanism. RBPD uses experience, reflection, and practice to help professionals set and achieve goals and have a long-term, sustainable impact.

Q: What would you like for early childhood educators to know about your team’s work? 

KES: I love to highlight all of the different aspects of what we do, because often early childhood professionals are familiar with us from one specific area of our work. Maybe they have attended a training to learn how to use a formative assessment tool like Desired Results for Children and Families (DRDP) or COR Advantage. Or they have seen our staff present at a conference. We get the chance to interact with a lot of practitioners when we work with school districts on implementations and evaluations and when we conduct observations for example using the CLASS® or ERS™ assessment tools. We also provide group relationship-based professional development support. We are always looking for ways to partner! 

One difference in COVID-19 pandemic times is that the in-person trainings that we normally offer are not possible. We are working diligently on an online format for these trainings, and when that is approved, it will appear in Develop and on CEED’s website. I’d encourage people who are interested to keep an eye out for that!

Q: What would you like for parents to know about your team’s work? 

KES: One thing that seems to surprise many parents is how complex and well researched early childhood education is. Ask the early childhood professionals in your life about their work. Ask them about the assessments they use, a training or conference they went to, or what they’re up to on those staff training days. These practitioners really work hard to provide a quality program for the kids in their care, and I’ll bet they’d love to share with you the new things they are learning and thinking about. 

In general, many people are surprised by the level of thought and preparation that goes into things like how a classroom is organized, how a concept is taught, or how a backyard is set up. All of these are guided by standards, research, and recommended practices. For example, a classroom might look really tidy to a visitor. We might look at how that cleanliness impacts the children in that classroom. Is the tidiness making it easier for children to find and use materials, to stay focused? Is the teacher’s time spent tidying up the room at the expense of learning moments? Taking time to learn and reflect about early childhood education is time well spent. Whether you are a grandparent taking care of a grandchild, an assistant teacher in a Head Start classroom, an educator in a toddler room, or a family child care professional, knowing how to support quality early childhood education is important!

Q: What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work (aside from being a busy parent)?

KES: Running! I am working towards a marathon, but for now I’m just happy I can run miles in the double digits.

By Deborah Ottman

In her previous posts on creating online learning experiences for adults, Associate Director of Professional Development, Deborah Ottman discussed three questions to ask before you start and the crucial next step of finding a flow for your online course or module. This third post in the series, which is aimed at subject matter experts, reveals how we can lay the groundwork for learners to gain a sense of community online.

In the field of early childhood education, we know the value of stimulating learning environments that encourage children to explore. We also place great emphasis on high-quality interactions between young children and their teachers and caregivers. Young children need their caregivers to engage with them in ways that are attentive and responsive, as well as predictable and supportive. When they experience these high-quality interactions, children feel cared for and confident. They, in turn, are better able to engage with others and the wider world. It’s a positive feedback loop.

In thinking about this, I’m struck by the parallels with adult learning. When we’re designing a learning experience for adults, we need to provide meaningful content that is delivered in stimulating ways. But that’s not all. We also have to provide opportunities for learners to feel acknowledged–to be “seen.” This may be especially true for online courses. In virtual learning environments, fostering a sense of community leads to greater student engagement and learning.

Social presence is a term that describes our ability to connect with others in an online environment. Learners project their personality, thoughts, and emotions into the virtual space through their interactions with one another, the instructor, and the content. Participation builds social presence and leads to greater student satisfaction in the course and its content. In fact, the more students interact online, the greater their perception of and satisfaction with their learning experience.

Encouraging interaction

In creating course components, such as discussion prompts or small group activities, keep in mind that these learning opportunities give students a chance not just to work with course content, but also to build their social presence. This is particularly the case if the course is asynchronous or self-study (i.e., not teacher-led).

There are a variety of technologies and teaching strategies that facilitate students’ interactions with instructors, peers, and content. Here are a few ways instructors can engage students:

Co-creating a body of knowledge

For adults, these interactions represent an opportunity to acquire new knowledge and also to contribute to the learning community’s burgeoning understanding of the subject at hand. Learners should be encouraged to share their perspectives and interpretations of material based on their unique backgrounds and experiences. This is another component of social presence and online community. We feel “seen” and counted when we contribute to the creation of a shared body of knowledge.

Providing opportunities for learners to demonstrate their value to the community will directly improve their personal sense of satisfaction with the course, the content, the community and their own learning. Here are some ways instructors can elicit contributions from students:

• Create opportunities for students to share their perspectives and to communicate with one another; these can include discussion boards and video recordings.
• Ask students to respond to a prompt and reply to several others’ responses.
• Assign small group work. Consider creating small base groups that work on group projects or assignments, or share their responses to assigned reading. You might try a weekly activity in which a rotating member of each group “shares out” with the larger class highlights from their group’s conversation or agreed-upon findings from that week
• When crafting discussion prompts, assignments, and reflection papers, ask students to tie new content to their individual experience in their response.
• Look for opportunities for students to share ideas about applying their new learning.

These are only a few of the ways to foster interaction online. Try a web search for your subject area and terms like “online learning” and “building community.” A little research will likely turn up many creative ideas specific to the topic, mode of instruction, and audience that you are targeting.

Just as in early childhood, high-quality interactions animate engagement. And adult learning theory tells us that engagement leads to learning. Learners of all ages thrive when they are acknowledged and seen. So when designing an online course or module, be intentional about embedding opportunities for building social presence. These are a hallmark of a well-designed adult learning experience.

The next post in this series will discuss authentic assessment. We’ll look at assessment not only as a way to measure learning, but also as an opportunity to deepen learning.

Londa Wagner, MS, LMFT, IMH-E® (III), is an instructor for CEED’s online Introduction to Infant Mental Health course. Londa is the mental health specialist for the St. Cloud Area School District early childhood programs in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She provides assessment and support to children and parents and works with early childhood staff to promote social and emotional learning and development for children, ages birth to five. Her extensive experience providing family therapy includes her private practice providing in-home family therapy to children and families who have experienced complex trauma. Londa is a founding member and serves on the Board of Directors of the Ellison Center in St. Cloud, an early childhood mental health center.

In this Q & A, Londa gives an overview of the infant mental health field and explains what participants can expect to learn in Introduction to Infant Mental Health.

Q. What age range does the information in this course apply to?

LW: Typically, in the field of mental health, when we are talking about infants, we usually mean birth to 3 years. However, the time between conception and birth is very important as well, because there is considerable evidence regarding prenatal influences on many clinical problems in early childhood. We also often extend the upper age limit to 5 years, because much research and many clinical programs extend beyond the first three years.

Q. Can you share a definition of “infant mental health”?

LW: Infant mental health is the young child’s capacity to experience, regulate, and express emotions in close and secure relationships and to explore the environment and learn. All of these capacities will best be accomplished within the context of the caregiving environment that includes family, community, and cultural expectations for young children. Developing these capacities is synonymous with healthy social and emotional development.

Q: Do people who take this course usually have an infant mental health background, or is the course intended for people who are exploring careers in infant mental health?

LW: Typically, the people who enroll in this course are working with children and their families, but they are not necessarily mental health specialists. For example, in our last session, participants included therapists and directors who had mental health knowledge, but who had not been trained specifically in the development of very young children. Also enrolled were a nurse who worked in a NICU, an early childhood special education home visitor, and some international students who worked in a hospital setting. All of these people had experience working with families and children in some capacity, but none had had specific training or knowledge in the philosophies and ideas of infant mental health.

I’ve heard from many students after this course that they were now able to think differently and with a new perspective, not only when working with the infants and their families, but also when working with anyone who was once an infant, which of course includes all of us! All of the development that occurs in our early childhood years tends to follow us and influence our current experiences, our work, our marriages, and our parenting. This includes influencing our attachment patterns, relationship styles, and our “ghosts” and “angels” in the nursery. These are metaphors for negative or positive early relational experiences with our own caregivers.

Q: What are the top three takeaways that you hope students come away with from this course?

LW: The first major takeaway I want to share is that relationships are the vehicle and the context for all early learning. This idea and viewpoint is often very different from our initial training and education as professionals, and it changes our work with children and families for the better. In infant mental health, the focus is always on the dyadic relationships between infants and caregivers. This is not only because infants are so dependent upon their caregiving contexts, but also because infant competence may vary widely in different relationships. What that means is that infants may act one way with one caregiver and another way with another caregiver. How they act depends on how their caregivers act; it depends on the nature of the caregiver’s presence and their positive or negative responses to the child. As we sometimes say in this field, it depends on how each caregiver is with the child. The infant mental health pioneer Jeree Pawl said, “How you are is as important as what you do.”

The second takeaway is that infant mental health is a multidisciplinary field. Infant and early childhood professionals represent a variety of disciplines spanning a variety of program and service settings. This includes early care and education, early intervention, mental and physical health, and child welfare, among other professions. Knowledge of infant mental health is beneficial to so many professions and the information learned in this course enriches your work tenfold.

The final takeaway I want to emphasize is that early intervention for children whose development is at risk has been shown to shift the balance from risk to resilience. This work really does matter!

Introduction to Infant Mental Health starts soon. Learn more and register.

By Mary Harrison, PhD, LICSW, IMH-E®

“How you are is as important as what you do.”

Jeree Pawl

Anyone caring for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers knows how intense the interactions can be. For young children, feelings are often big and unwieldy.

When times are uncertain and we feel under threat, we want to “do something.” We want to be proactive and reactive, to feel like we can make a difference, and somehow, to influence future outcomes. Parents and caregivers of young children feel a powerful pull towards protecting them from any harm.

Yet reflective practice reminds us that “how we are is as important as what we do,” as the renowned infant mental health scholar Jeree Pawl so aptly put it.

How. We. Are.

How are we?

In the infant and early childhood mental health field, reflective practice asks practitioners to explore their own thoughts and feelings, using them as data in their work. Reflective practice reminds us to check in with ourselves—with our bodies and our minds. How are we feeling? Where does our worry live? Which areas feel tight or constricted?

We may not even be aware of how our bodies are feeling or of how our emotions manifest themselves physically unless we deliberately pause to take stock. The regular intentionality of reflective practice helps us pause long enough to notice how we are.

It’s the same with our mental and emotional well-being. What are we thinking about? What are we focused on? How are we affected by what we are reading and thinking about?

And how are we—collectively, as individuals who exist in a web of relationships? Reflective practice encourages us to reach out to people we trust for reflective conversations. It reminds us that connecting with others helps us be our best selves, especially in times of crisis.

When we pause and notice how we are feeling within the context of a compassionate relationship, we realize how powerful our bodies and minds are in influencing the minutes and hours of our lives. We also notice that we have some control and influence over our bodies and minds. Observing is the first and most important step in assessing quality care for young children, so it makes sense that observing ourselves should come first.

Because of the need for “social distancing” to slow the spread of COVID-19, people around the world are now confronting the prospect of staying at home with children for an undetermined amount of time. They may be getting used to working from home. Or maybe they have been caring for children at home full time, but must grapple with new limits on where they can go and whom they can see. Faced with this “new normal,” we might want to jump into a strict schedule or fill our children’s days with developmentally appropriate opportunities for learning. But if we have forgotten to check in with ourselves and attend to how we are with others, we may not feel as good about the process or outcomes.

Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson have just published a book that teaches us to pay more attention to how we are: The Power of Showing Up: How Parental Presence Shapes Who Our Kids Become and How Their Brains Get Wired.

Anyone working with young children can replace the word “parental” with the term that best represents them: how a child care provider’s presence…a preschool teacher’s presence…a home visitor’s presence shapes who our kids become.

The key is “presence.” Our presence is how we are.

In these times of unprecedented crisis, our children are learning how to be from us. They are learning what worry looks like for adults and how to manage worry. They are observing all kinds of normal emotion expressions from the grown-ups who take care of them: irritability, panic, rage, numbing. If we can notice our own bodies and emotions, we gain the opportunity to teach emotion regulation skills in real time.

We can teach children that a “time out” can be a valuable chance to take some deep breaths and find a way to feel calmer. We can teach them that sometimes words and talking aren’t helpful; instead, connecting through a hug is where to start. We can teach them that we make mistakes. Sometimes, we are too loud or too angry or too worried or too checked out to be the kind of caregivers we really want to be. Reflective practice reminds us to pay attention to our own behavior. When we do that, we can own our reactions and repair our relationships. We can explain to our children that we, too, have a hard time sometimes and that we, too, are still learning how to manage our big feelings so that we do not seem “mean” or “scary.”

There is no finish line to this learning. We do not reach a certain age or have our children reach a certain milestone and then feel like we’ve got it down. Instead, as we weather ups and downs and brand-new crises, we can practice our skills again and again. The good news is that how we are as parents and caregivers is vitally important to the well-being of young children, and when we practice self-reflection within compassionate relationships, or even alone, we are “doing something” essential.

The voice of the beloved television personality Fred Rogers still echoes across the American media landscape some 17 years after his death. If you hurry to the movie theater, you can still catch A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a 2019 drama starring Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers. A highly successful biographical documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, was released in 2018, as was Mister Rogers: It’s You I Like, a PBS special that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. A video clip of Mr. Rogers testifying before Congress about the importance of funding for public television circulates regularly on social media. And as many parents know, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, an animated spinoff of Mr. Rogers’ original show that debuted in 2012, has become a staple among the toddler and preschooler set.

Mary Harrison, Ph.D., LICSW, IMH-E®, Research Associate at CEED, shared her thoughts about why filmmakers and TV producers continue to revisit both the life and philosophy of the real Mr. Rogers and the imaginary world of characters that he created.

Q: Why do you think Mr. Rogers has such staying power? Why is he still a presence in Americans’ everyday lives, almost 20 years after his TV show stopped airing?

MH: I wonder if we are at a time in our history when we are craving a return to what Mr. Rogers had to offer. The show stands in such contrast to much of the programming available to children and families. The pace is so much slower. It is not a cartoon. It leads with its heart and not its head by focusing on unconditional positive regard and a reminder of each human’s inherent worthiness. It reminds us to be curious and to consider our world from a child’s perspective. There is an authenticity and earnestness that we are, perhaps, missing in other parts of our lives. As a parent, it can feel like the world is changing so quickly and we are not always sure how to keep our children safe. Mr. Rogers is familiar and consistent—something we all crave.

Q: What is unique or unusual about what Mr. Rogers has to say about children?

MH: When Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood began, it was unusual to have a television show give such careful consideration to young children’s emotional experiences. The premise, the set, the puppets and characters, the dialogue, and the subject matter were all created and produced with a child’s perspective in mind. The routines of his show created a sense of belonging where children were invited to wonder and learn in carefully paced ways. It was as if each child was having his or her own experience with Mr. Rogers—going with him between his house and community and the land of make-believe where they could join beloved characters as they tried to make sense of the world.

Mr. Rogers also did not shy away from more serious subjects. Instead, he spoke directly to children. He modeled kind, calm, consistent ways to talk about big, hard things that balanced a straightforward approach with attention to children’s emotional safety. In each episode, he looked straight into the camera and told them: “I like you just the way you are.” Even as an adult, Mr. Rogers was able to hold in his mind how it might feel to be a child in different situations. It reminds me of Selma Fraiberg’s ability to write from a child’s perspective in her seminal 1959 book, The Magic Years: Understanding and Handling the Problems of Early Childhood.

Q: What can parents learn from Mr. Rogers about supporting children’s growth and development? What are key parenting takeaways from Mr. Rogers?

As a parent, it is so helpful to be reminded that children need to hear—and, most importantly, need to feel—like they are inherently worthy of love just as they are. Of course, parents want their children to know that we love them just the way they are, but I wonder if we all succumb, at times, to pressures to do things “right” and to be “good” in order to be worthy of love. I wonder whether we unintentionally give children the message that they need to do something to be special and worthy.

We live in a time when accomplishments and talents are highly valued. Parents often feel that they are evaluated based on their child’s accomplishments and behavior. Children are praised for working hard, listening, paying attention, and following the rules. While these skills are important, so are empathy and creativity and compassion. For many children—and for many families—less and less time is spent in settings where they are able to just be together in their own ways and at their own pace. Parents are juggling many demands and it can be hard to slow down and see things from a child’s perspective. But young children need adults to create opportunities, as well as provide relational safety, for them to just be themselves as they are—where “being” looks more like curiosity and exploration and play than “doing.” Mr. Rogers provided an excellent example of what that can look like.

Q: Do you have a favorite character from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood or Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood?

Daniel Tiger is my favorite character—more from the original show than the cartoon, although my own children also love the cartoon. As a child, I got to see Daniel Tiger wrestle with big questions and big feelings within a safe, consistent relationship. That experience is a gift.

Q: Are there stories or songs from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood or Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood that have had a positive impact in your life or your children’s?

There are so many wonderful parts of these shows! We loved the songs “You can take a turn, and then I’ll get it back,” “When you feel so mad that you want to roar,” “When you have to go potty, stop and go right away,” and “Grownups come back.” Music is so helpful in parenting because it can create a shared experience and routine around new learning.

It was especially helpful for my children to see Daniel Tiger struggling with frustration, anger, worry, and jealousy, because I think it helped them realize that they were not alone in their internal experiences and that there were things they could do to feel better. As a parent, you want to teach your children and empathize with them, but there is only so much you can do with your words and in your role. When characters like Daniel Tiger or other beloved characters in books wrestle with hard things, they connect with children on a different level.

Reflective supervision/consultation (RSC) is growing by leaps and bounds around the country—and it’s no wonder. Evidence suggests that this relationship-based form of professional development has a range of benefits for people who work with young children and their families. (Download our free e-book to learn more about how RSC is used in fields like child care, healthcare, education, and social work.)

Researchers at the Reflective Practice Center (RPC) at CEED wondered how those who provide reflective supervision, either as managers or consultants, acquire their skills. We conducted a landscape survey to find out about the state of RSC training around the country. We asked:

1. What RSC training is currently available nationwide?
2. What are RSC providers’ perceptions of the training they have received?

Our new report, Training in Reflective Supervision/Consultation: Nationwide Survey Results, details our findings. These included:

In the report, you’ll also find direct testimonials from survey respondents that provide insight into why and how RSC works, like this quotation from a practitioner:

“Participation in RSC has been life-changing for me. It has made me a more patient, mindful, and observant practitioner. It has helped me learn how to use myself and awareness of what I am thinking and/or feeling to be more accepting of my clients and colleagues and frankly, myself. It has decreased my stress, made me feel less ‘alone’ in the work with young children and their families. It is the hour I look forward to the most each month.”

Funding for this project was generously provided by the Lynne & Andrew Redleaf Foundation.  Download the report.