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Infant Mental Health - What Does this Mean?
Infant Mental Health Defined Infant Mental Health (IMH) has been defined as “…the developing capacity of the child from birth to three to: experience, regulate, and express emotions; form close interpersonal relationships; and explore the environment and learn–all in the context of family, community, and cultural expectations for young children. Infant mental health is synonymous with healthy social and emotional development (Zeanah, et. al., 2005). The field of infant mental health is broad and embraces many disciplines, including social work, psychiatry, the child welfare arena, education, speech and language, occupational and physical therapy, child and family development, psychology, nursing and pediatrics. Infant mental health incorporates both neurobiology and developmental psychology for proper adaptation, growth, and development from birth to childhood, and even maternal and environmental factors affecting these areas before birth.
In the early 1970’s, knowledge about the first three years of life was rapidly expanding through advances in the medical field with work in Neonatal Intensive Care Units, pediatric clinics, and advanced research in developmental psychology and neurobiology (Weatherston, 2005). Selma Fraiberg was a founding member of the Zero to Three Organization, which began in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Fraiburg and her colleagues from medical, psychiatric and psychological disciplines developed a groundbreaking approach to strengthening development in young children through strong parent-child relationships through the Child Development Project and called this approach Infant Mental Health. “Infant” referred to children under three years of age. “Mental” included social, emotional and cognitive domains. “Health” referred to the well-being of young children and families (Weatherston, 2005). In this approach, the infant and parent were observed together, usually in their home environment. The practitioner carefully observed the parent-child interactions to assess for risks, strengths, and develop intervention strategies. This approach was groundbreaking because the focus shifted from the individual to the relationship between parent, child, and environment.
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