Early Years Development: Infant Mental Health (ref. M9)
A part-time, two-year course for professionals working with infants, children under five or their families, in health or ‘children, schools and families’ settings.
Do you work with babies and children rising five?
Do you support parents/carers of young children?
Would you like to learn more about infant and young child development?
Would you like to develop skills in therapeutic interventions with young children?
If so, then this course may be for you….
Who is this course for?
Family Centre worker, specialist nurse, midwife, health visitor, clinical psychologist, social worker, nursery teacher, nursery nurse and other early years professionals.
Aims
It offers an experience-based and theoretical approach to understanding children’s emotional, social and cognitive development.
This course aims to increase your understanding of:
• The developing relationships of infants and children within the family context
• The emotional and behavioural problems which can affect this age group
• The factors which promote healthy emotional development of infants and children
• Infant and child observation – tuning in to the baby’s signals
• Understanding infant and young children’s behaviour, play and communications - early identification and assessment of difficulties
• Developing a therapeutic approach to work with parents, infants and young children including:
- group
- individual
- family interventions
• Responding to families where problems include:
- attachment and parent-infant relationship difficulties
- post-natal depression - clinginess and separation anxiety
- feeding and sleep difficulties - tantrums and disruptive behaviour
- communication and developmental delay in young children
Content/Teaching components
• Infant and young child observation
• Work discussion
• Theoretical overview seminars
• An introduction to child development research findings
• Personality development (optional, London programme)
• Individual tutorial support
The course takes place on Wednesdays
Year 1
10am-11.15am: Theoretical Overview 1 (fortnightly)
10am-11.15am: Child Development Research (fortnightly)
11.30am-12.45pm: Work Discussion Seminar
2pm-3.15pm: Infant observation Seminar
Year 2
10.00am - 11.15am: Theoretical Overview 2 (fortnightly)
10.00am - 11.15am: Personality Development (fortnightly)
11.30am - 12.45pm: Work Discussion Seminar
3.30pm - 4.45pm: Specialist Observation Seminar
Year 3
Dissertation proposal seminars take place only in the autumn term
Closing date
July 2012 (late applications may be considered).
Time commitment
Year I
Day release on Wednesdays, 10.00am - 3.15pm
Year 2
Day release on Wednesdays, 10.00am - 4.45pm
Year 3
10 dissertation proposal seminars, term 1
In addition, observation, recording, reading and essay writing may take 9 - 10 hours per week in both years.
Entry requirement
You must be working in a professional context with infants or pre-school age children and their families, e.g. family centre worker, midwife, health visitor, GP, paediatrician, clinical psychologist, social worker, specialist nurse, nursery teacher or nursery nurse.
Course readings and access to library resources
When you begin your course you will be issued with an online study pack which you can access via our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called Moodle. Having a study pack means most of your key course readings for the whole year will be available to you simply by logging onto your Moodle course page. You can then print off the readings as you require them. Our students find this resource invaluable and it means you can have 24/7 access to your readings. Readings that are not included in your study pack can be obtained from the Library once you have enrolled with the Library at the end of September.
The Tavistock and Portman Library is nationally recognised as a leading UK therapeutic resource. For more information about our library follow the link www.tavi-port.org/library
Other centres of study
Bristol
Florence, Italy
Athens, Greece
Download other articles about Infant Mental Health
Read Andrew Cooper's piece in The Guardian Misguided Vengeance and M9 course organiser Louise Emanuel's response, here.
Does thinking about infant mental health make a difference?
Rosie Jones, a health visitor, writes about the course in the AIMH (UK) Newsletter, January 2003
A Specialist Health Visitor in Infant Mental Health
Ros Bennet, Specialist Infant Mental Health Visitor
AIMH (UK) Newsletter, December 2001
New Infant Mental Health Diploma/MA at The Tavistock Centre and Bristol
Louise Emanuel, Course Organiser
AIMH (UK) Newsletter, April 2001
