About Connected Beginnings

Mission

Connected Beginnings is an infant and early childhood mental health training institute that promotes awareness of the central importance of relationships in the lives of infants and young children. Our work will extend the capacity of infant and early childhood practitioners and programs to understand and apply current knowledge on the effects of relationships on very young children's social and emotional well being, evolving brain architecture, and capacity to learn.

Vision

Every child will start life with loving, responsive, and affirming relationships with parents and caregivers to provide a healthy foundation for life-long learning and connections with other people.

Background on Connected Beginnings

What is Birth to Five Mental Health?

Birth to five mental health is synonymous with healthy social and emotional development. Mental health is the developing capacity of children ages birth to five to experience, regulate, and express emotions; to form close and secure relationships; and to explore the environment and learn. All of development takes place in the context of family, community, and culture (Zero to Three, 2001).

What Does the Research Say?

Research affirms that very young children grow, learn, develop and thrive in close, dependable, nurturing relationships. Children suffer in the absence of such relationships and recover remarkably well when nurturing relationships are provided or restored. The social and emotional skills and competencies learned within these relationships are the foundation for a child's success throughout life.

Research also suggests professionals promote positive outcomes in children when they are well-trained and receive ongoing mentoring. It is imperative that those working with very young children, their families and their caregivers draw on specialized knowledge of social and emotional development, the influence of caregivers, the dynamics of relationships, and the role of culture in shaping parenting practices and community supports. Furthermore, professionals are most effective when they listen, observe, and reflect on their own beliefs and values.

"Substantial new investments should be made to address the nation's seriously inadequate capacity for addressing young children's mental health needs. Expanded opportunities for professional training, as recently called for by the Surgeon General, and incentives for individuals with pertinent expertise to work in settings with young children are essential first steps toward more effective screening, early detection, treatment, and ultimate prevention of serious childhood mental health problems." (Recommendation 3, from Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development by Jack Shonkoff and Deborah Phillips, editors, National Academy Press, 2000.)

Intended Impacts

Connected Beginnings will provide leadership in design, delivery, and assessment of relationship-focused, practitioner-oriented, and culturally competent professional development in the emerging field of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.

Connected Beginnings will focus its professional development activities in support of Massachusetts's providers and clinicians who work in Early Intervention and infant and early childhood education and care settings. Through its professional development activities, within three years, 90% of the approximately 60 EI programs in the state will have a majority of staff that routinely uses a relational perspective* in their practice. Although some practitioners have a background in this area, most training and professional development focuses on individual development. Within 7 years, 1,054 childcare centers, representing 50% of the approximately 2,124 center-based early education and childcare programs serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, will have staff that routinely applies a relational approach in their practice. Additionally, Connected Beginnings will aim to reach 25% of the 7,789 family childcare providers in the state.

Activities, Services & Strategies

To achieve its mission, Connected Beginnings needs to rely on the related efforts of many other organizations, agencies and systems including, Early Intervention, Early Education and Care, civic leaders, decision-makers and public administrators who influence or develop policies, promulgate regulations, and make program funding decisions, and institutions of higher education that educate specialists in the helping professions. Connected Beginnings is part of a complex, value-creating network of activities and organizations that are mutually reinforcing. Through working with other likeminded and collaborative organizations, Connected Beginnings seeks to strengthen the system of family supports in Massachusetts and ensure young children have the best possible start in life.

Connected Beginnings strategies and activities are targeted to ensure professionals will be able to confidently and effectively help parents and caregivers develop relationships that provide the foundation for children's present and future well-being.

Professional Development

To translate research into practice, the training model will focus on:

• Promotion of infant and early childhood mental health - inspiring an awareness of the core importance of the dynamics of relationships within all families and childcare experiences and across cultures.
• Prevention of disturbances in early social and emotional development - incorporating the knowledge and skills to identify and address early signs of disturbances in the relational and social-emotional well being of very young children, their parents, and significant caregivers.
• Frontline Therapeutic Intervention - identifying circumstances in which more intensive, specialized, or protective interventions are needed and knowing how to intervene and/or refer to appropriate resources in the community.

Scholarships

To expand the availability of culturally competent relationship-oriented infant and early childhood mental health specialists, Connected Beginnings will collaborate with more intensive, clinical post-graduate infant and early childhood mental health professional education programs. Connected Beginnings will offer scholarships and mentoring to Connected Beginning Scholars who will advance the infant and early childhood mental health approach of community programs.

Evaluation

To advance the field of infant and early childhood mental health and ensure that professional development and training activities achieve positive outcomes for professionals, very young children, and their families, Connected Beginnings will maintain an active dialogue between practice and research through implementation of evaluations of professional development activities in collaboration with academic institutions. Connected Beginnings will disseminate the findings of these efforts through white papers, conference presentations, and articles in professional journals.

Who is Involved?

Professions

Professionals from a wide range of disciplines have the opportunity to promote young children's social and emotional well being, and help their families and caregivers meet the challenges of mild and major emotional disruptions.

Professions include:

• Social workers
• Pediatricians
• Nurses
• Psychologists
• Speech and language therapists
• Early childhood educators

Agencies

Connected Beginnings works across disciplines with the following state agencies:

• Departments of Early Education and Care
• Department of Mental Health
• Department of Public Health
• Department of Social Services
• Juvenile Court

Connected Beginnings supports training that ensures professionals and agencies have the tools and access they need to:

• Promote social and emotional well being
• Identify emotional distress
• Intervene effectively to help children and their caregivers get back on track when problems arise

Connected Beginnings Professional Development Activities Supporting Organizations and Communities

We created this chart to let you know how Connected Beginnings and others in Massachusetts can support your organization's professional development efforts. Professional development that focuses on relationships is an essential component of a system that ensures all babies, toddlers, and preschoolers thrive. All of Connected Beginnings' activities are directed towards bringing parents and other significant caregivers closer to each other and to the children they love - within the context of family and community, values and beliefs.

Leadership in Professional Development Efforts	Partnership for Systems’ Change	Linkages to Other Relationship-Based Efforts
Offering IN-TIME – Infant Mental Health Training -for Early Intervention (EI) Practitioners (30 hours plus 6 hours on-site consultation) –enhances EI practitioners focus on babies’ and toddlers’ social and emotional development and evolving relationships with their parents and other significant caregivers.	Sharing expertise in integrating a relationship-based focus into statewide efforts -Department of Public Health: Early Intervention Competencies & Maternal & Infant Mental Health Grant; Early Education and Care: Quality Rating Improvement System; Executive Office of Health and Human Services: Mass Behavioral Health Web-Based Module on Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.	Touchpoints in Early Care and Education -uses a developmental and relational model to promote childcare teachers role in promoting healthy relationships between children and parents.
Offering- IN-TIME Train the Trainers (30 Hours plus 10 hours face to face and web-based mentoring in teaching and facilitating this curriculum.	Web-based learning community– for those involved in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Professional Development –under construction.	Infant-Parent Training Program at Jewish Family and Children’s Service-post-graduate program for advanced clinicians. Connected Beginnings provides scholarships and mentoring to a limited numbe
Offering -Mind in the Making (MITM) –for Early Care and Education staff (30 hours) –emphasizes the central role of relationships in supporting all domains of development and learning.	Needs assessment and design of agency and community “readiness” for relationship focused professional development	Center on Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSFEL)-focused on promoting social and emotional development and school readiness for children birth to five. Potential for partnership with MA.
Supporting-When Young Children Need Help –seminar for mental health consultants working in Early Care and Education settings. (32 hours).	Provide consultation and support for integrating infant and early childhood mental health competencies into ongoing existing competency efforts in Massachusetts, e.g. Early Intervention.

For optimal development - a child requires progressively more complex joint activity with one or more adults who have an irrational emotional relationship with the child. Somebody’s got to be crazy about that kid. That’s number one. First, last, and always. -Urie Bronfrenbrener.

Trainings from Connected Beginnings

Scholarships from Connected Beginnings

Program Summary

The Connected Beginnings Training Institute Scholarship Program provides opportunities for financial assistance for beginning, intermediate, and advanced training in infant and early childhood mental health. The scholarship program supports both current and future infant-toddler and preschool mental health specialists and professional and paraprofessional practitioners from a range of disciplines such as medicine, nursing, social work, psychology, physical therapy, early childhood education, occupational therapy, speech and language who are well positioned in a variety of settings to enhance the social and emotional well-being of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, their parents, and other significant caregivers. These settings might include early education and care, child welfare, home visiting programs, and early intervention.

Eligibility

To be eligible for a scholarship, applicants must currently work in settings that serve families with young children. Applicants must also be enrolled in specific training programs or courses that prepare them to work collaboratively with parents and other caregivers to promote social and emotional well being, to identify and address early signs of disturbances in the relational well being of very young children and their significant caregivers and to intervene to help establish or restore nurturing relationships when disruptions occur.

The training must focus on four key content areas:

1. the emotional development of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers;
2. the emotional contribution of parents and other caregivers;
3. the dynamics of relationships; and
4. the self-reflective capacity of the practitioner.

Trainings must integrate a framework for exploring practitioners’ and parents’ cultural expectations around childrearing and developmental milestones and enhance participants’ capacity to observe and interpret behavior and provide meaningful feedback. In 2007-2008 eligible programs included Jewish Family and Children’s Service’s, Infant-Parent Training Institute, Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training (NCAST), and IN-TIME Training developed by Thom Child & Family Services.

Currently, there are two training programs that qualify for scholarships: the Infant-Parent Training Institute and IN-TIME. For information and an application for the Infant-Parent Training Institute Scholarship, please click here. For and application for the IN-TIME Scholarship, please click here. The Connected Beginnings Scholarship Review Committee will review applications.

Staff at Connected Beginnings

Libby Zimmerman, Ph.D., LICSW

Libby Zimmerman is founding Executive Director of Connected Beginnings Training Institute. Her specialty is integrating research-based infant mental health training into a range of settings including Early Intervention, childcare, and Early Head Start. Dr. Zimmerman’s published research explores how infants develop relationships with their parents and childcare teachers. She has presented nationally and internationally on how the dynamic interactions between practitioners, babies, caregivers, and culture influence infant-toddler social and emotional well being. Prior to founding Connected Beginnings, she was a Senior Early Childhood Associate with the Early Head Start Resource Center at Zero To Three, consulting to staff in the Federal Administration for Children and Families on enhancing Early Head Start and childcare programs in the New England Region. In that position she was the lead writer for Pathways to Prevention, a guide for integrating infant mental health principles into agency practice http://www.headstartinfo.org/pdf/Pathwaysto.pdf

Dr. Zimmerman was on the faculty of the Boston University School of Social Work from 1987-2000 where she chaired the Human Behavior Sequence, directed several federal Child Welfare training grants, and developed an interdisciplinary graduate course in infant mental health with faculty from other graduate programs under the umbrella of the University Partnership for Infant Toddler Professionals. She is a founding member and has been on the staff of Focus, Counseling and Consultation, Inc. in Cambridge since 1973 where she is a psychotherapist and supervisor for other infant mental health professionals. She serves on the board of the Boston Institute for the Development of Infants and Parents. Dr. Zimmerman is a graduate of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University , Ph.D., University of Michigan, MSW, and University of California, B.A. She has a training certificate in Video Interaction Guidance and incorporates video feedback into her work. She is Visiting Scholar in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, September 2005-December 2008.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Leutz, M.S.Ed.

Betsy Leutz is Senior Program Director at Connected Beginnings. Her special areas of expertise are in Infant and Early Childhood Development and in bringing infant and early childhood theory to professional practice in Early Intervention and Early Education and Care settings. From 1995 – 2007 she served first as Director of Program Services and then as Director of Development at Thom Child & Family Services, a statewide non-profit agency serving over 7,000 young children and their families in Massachusetts. While at Thom, Betsy had responsibility for content areas that included developing, overseeing and supervising Thom’s Early Intervention, Consultation and Training Programs; fundraising and grant-writing; and curriculum development. She collaborated on the creation of Thom’s Jump, Jiggle and Jive™ music and movement curriculum for infants, toddlers and their caregivers. With Libby Zimmerman, Betsy helped to create the IN-TIME Training in Infant Mental Health.

Betsy was the director of Thom’s Anne Sullivan Center Early Intervention and Preschool program in Lowell, MA from 1980-95 and before that worked as a childcare consultant in Brookline, MA and a preschool-kindergarten teacher in Cambridge, MA and New York City. She holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from The City University of New York, a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University, and is certified as an Early Intervention Specialist and Early Intervention Director in Massachusetts. She is the co-author of: “Hand in Hand: Integrating Young Children In Need of Substantial Special Education Supports,” Massachusetts Department of Education, Bureau of Early Childhood Programs, 1991 and "Entitlements for persons with disabilities: Perspectives on the US from the UK," a paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Society on Aging, 1997. Betsy is currently a member of Massachusetts Interagency Coordinating Committee - Program Planning Committee and has served on the Advisory Committee to the Early Intervention Training Center.

Mallary I. Swartz, M.S.

Mallary Swartz is a doctoral fellow at Connected Beginnings and a Ph.D. candidate in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. Her primary areas of interest are early care and education and young children’s social and emotional development with a focus on teacher-child and parent-teacher relationships. Mallary’s work at Connected Beginnings focuses on designing, conducting, and coordinating evaluation studies of training and professional development initiatives. Other recent work includes collaborating with organizations in New Orleans to help rebuild and enhance the quality of child care, and developing a family child care curriculum for the state of Louisiana. Mallary also worked on the Evaluation of the Touchpoints Early Care and Education Initiative at Tufts University. Prior to coming to Tufts, Mallary served as Director of Special Projects at the University of Pittsburgh Child Development Center where, among other projects, she directed a consulting program designed to enhance the quality of care in community child care centers. Mallary also worked on several research and evaluation projects related to young children’s development and learning at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina, at the University of Pittsburgh, and at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. She was also a teacher of one, two, and three-year-olds. Mallary completed a M.S. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, and a B.A. in Psychology from Duke University. She joined Connected Beginnings in September, 2007.

Laura Beals, M.A.

Laura Beals is a doctoral intern at Connected Beginnings and a third-year Ph.D. student from Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. Her primary areas of interest are in research methodology and evaluation, innovative technology-based research methods for use with children and adolescents, and nonprofit management and organization. Prior to joining Connected Beginnings in 2008, Laura worked at the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (CEEO) and currently is a member of the Developmental Technologies Research Group at Tufts University. She has published and presented at national conferences on topics including robotics, online peer networks, and interactive technology programs for children and adults. Laura completed a MA in Child Development from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, with her thesis focusing on a new technology and methodology for observing early childhood classrooms. She graduated summa cum laude in an innovative multidisciplinary program combining Child Development with a BS from the College of Engineering at Tufts University.

Advisory Council

Anita Moeller
Deputy Commissioner for Programs
Massachusetts Department for Early Care and Education

Ron Benham, M.A.
Director, Perinatal, Early Childhood and Special Health Needs
Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Ann Capoccia, M.S.W, LICSW
Coordinator of Inter-Agency Activities
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health

Cassandra Clay, M.Ed. M.S.W, LICSW
Clinical Professor
Chair, Clinical Practice Sequence
Boston University School of Social Work

Ann Easterbrooks, Ph.D
Professor
Director of Graduate Studies
Eliot Pearson Department of Child Development
Tufts University

Louise Eldridge
Regional Program Manager
Federal Administration for Children and Families

Deborah Hirschland, M.S.W, LICSW
Trainer for Together for Kids and Independent Trainer, Consultant, Practitioner

Margot Kaplan-Sanoff, Ed.D
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Director of Healthy Steps
Department of Pediatrics
Boston Medical Center

Neal Michaels, M.S.P.
Director of Early Intervention and Special Projects
Massachusetts Department of Social Service

Kevin Nugent, Ph.D.
Professor
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Founder/Director
Brazelton Institute at Children's Hospital

Caroline Ross
Senior Director, Community Impact
United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley

Joshua Sparrow, M.D.
Director, Special Projects
Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Children’s Hospital Boston
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Supervisor Outpatient Psychiatry Services
Children’s Hospital

Web Resources for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health

Infant Mental Health Associations by State

Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health
www.uchsc.edu/coaimh

Florida Association for Infant Mental Health
www.cpeip.fsu.edu

Illinois Association for Infant Mental Health
www.ilaimh.org

Indiana Association for Infant and Toddler Mental Health, Inc.
www.mentalhealthassociation.com/IAITMH.htm

Kansas Association for Infant Mental Health
www.kaimh.org

Maine Association for Infant Mental Health
www.infantmentalhealth.org

Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health
www.mi-aimh.org

Minnesota Infant Mental Health Project
http://education.umn.edu/ceed/projects/imh

Nebraska Association for Infant Mental Health
www.nebraskachildren.org

New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health
www.njaimh.org

Ohio Association for Infant Mental Health
www.oaimh.org

Utah Association for Infant Mental Health
www.hope.usu.edu/uaimh

Texas Association for Infant Mental Health
www.taimh.org

Wisconsin Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Association
www.wiimh.org

Massachusetts Resources

Boston Institute for the Development of Infants and Parents (BIDIP)
www.bidip.org

Department of Early Education and Care (DEEC)
www.eec.state.ma.us

Department of Social Services (DSS)
www.mass.gov/dss

Division of Perinatal, Early Childhood, and Special Health Needs
Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH)
www.mass.gov/dph/fch/dpech.htm

Early Intervention (EI)
Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH)
www.mass.gov/dph/fch/ei.htm

Infant-Parent Training Institute, Center for Early Relationship Support
Jewish Family and Children’s Service
www.jfcsboston.org/fcs/infant_parent_training.cfm

Massachusetts Children’s Trust Fund (CTF)
www.mctf.org

Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC)
www.mspcc.org

The Rice Center, Boston Institute for Psychotherapy (BIP)
www.bostoninstitute.org

Touchpoints for Early Care and Education Professionals
www.touchpoints.org/ecet.html

National Resources

Center on the Developing Child
www.developingchild.harvard.edu

Early Head Start National Resource Center
www.ehsnrc.org

Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health
www.ffcmh.org

Healthy Steps for Young Children
www.healthysteps.org

International Society on Infant Studies
www.isisweb.org

Maternal and Child Health Bureau,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
http://mchb.hrsa.gov

National Association for the Education of Young Children
www.naeyc.org

National Center for Children in Poverty (Columbia University)
www.nccp.org

National Head Start Association
www.nhsa.org

National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition
www.hmhb.org

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/childmenu.cfm

National Mental Health Information Center
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/child/childhealth.asp

Ounce of Prevention Fund
www.ounceofprevention.org

Zero to Three
www.zerotothree.org

International Resources

Association for Infant Mental Health UK
www.aimh.org.uk

Australian Association for Infant Mental Health
www.aaimhi.org

Canadian Association for Young Children
www.cayc.ca

Western Canadian Association for Infant Mental Health
www.vcn.bc.ca/wcaimh

World Association of Infant Mental Health
www.waimh.org

Articles and Reports

Pathways to Prevention: A Comprehensive Guide for Supporting Infant and Toddler Mental Health http://www.headstartinfo.org/pdf/Pathwaysto.pdf

A Science-Based Framework for Early Childhood Policy http://www.developingchild.harvard.edu/content/downloads/Policy_Framework.pdf