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.

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.