Promoting infant and toddler mental health with parents

This course is for all practitioners working with infants and toddlers. Through your work, you are well placed to support parents by providing relevant, quality information about children’s development and mental health.

As the World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified, ‘the health sector plays a critical role in delivering key nurturing care interventions and there is opportunity to strengthen the nurturing care approach in health services and in partnership with other sectors¹.’  

As you progress through this course, you will:

• explore entry points and opportunities to have respectful and collaborative conversations with parents, with the aim of supporting them to promote positive social and emotional wellbeing for their infants
• understand and utilise practice positions for parent engagement when conducting these conversations
• reflect on ways to provide support and guidance that is relevant and appropriate to the parent’s, family’s and infant’s circumstances
• learn strategies for providing quality resources and information to parents.

This course follows on from the foundation course, Building blocks for children’s social and emotional wellbeing.

It is recommended that you complete the foundation course first before undertaking this core (practice-based) course.

The foundation course provides you with the following important understandings about infants and toddlers:

• The building blocks of infants’ and toddlers’ social and emotional wellbeing.
• Factors that can influence social and emotional wellbeing and development.
• The importance of recognising opportunities to provide guidance, quality information and resources to parents to support the mental health of their infant or toddler.

It is estimated that this course will take you two-and-a-half hours to complete, including reading material and watching videos.

You can undertake the course across multiple sessions at your own pace. The last screen you visit before logging off will be bookmarked, and you will have the option of returning to that screen when you next log in.

As you work through the course, it is important to be aware of your own emotional responses. Please follow the self-care tips below and seek help if needed:

• We do not recommend undertaking the entire course in one sitting. Give yourself some breaks. Even if you don’t feel that you need a break, it’s a good idea to take one anyway and come back later.
• Be aware of your emotions as you progress through the course, and take action if you are starting to feel stressed or upset. For example, consider taking a break and doing something for yourself that you enjoy.
• Be aware of your emotional responses after you complete the course.

If at any point you find you are struggling, please talk with your supervisor, seek help, or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, or SANE Australia on 1800 18 7263.

For the purposes of this course, resources and information are defined as printed materials, online information, videos, audio, TV shows, community activities, or public facilities (places).

The use of the term parent in this course encompasses the biological and adoptive parents of a baby or infant, as well as individuals who have chosen to take up a primary or shared responsibility in raising that infant.

Mental health is something that all people have, from infants right through to adults. It is not fixed; rather, mental health exists along a continuum that can range from positive mental health, to vulnerabilities or difficulties, to diagnosable mental health conditions. Infant mental health can also be referred to as the infant’s ‘social and emotional wellbeing’.

Social and emotional wellbeing refers to the way a person thinks and feels about themselves and others. It incorporates behavioural and emotional strengths and is a facet of infant development².

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in broad terms, ‘social and emotional wellbeing’ is the foundation for physical and mental health. It is a holistic concept which results from a network of relationships between individuals, family, kin, and community. It also recognises the importance of connection to land, culture, spirituality, and ancestry, and how these affect the individual.³

Social and emotional wellbeing is also used by some people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, who may have differing concepts of mental health and mental illness.⁴

Social and emotional development involves the development of skills required to:

• identify and understand one’s feelings
• read and understand the emotional states of others
• manage strong emotions and how they are expressed
• regulate behaviour
• develop empathy
• establish and maintain relationships.⁵

Infants and toddlers is used to describe children from conception until their fourth birthday throughout this course.

The first thousand days is a term used to describe the period between conception and the child’s second birthday.

This course draws on the latest research, clinical insights, and the lived experience of our child and family partners. We’d like to thank the professionals and families who played an integral role in shaping this course, generously offering their time, wisdom and unique perspectives.

Watch the following video for a quick guide on how to navigate Emerging Minds Learning courses.