Children in foster care face a number of challenges that threaten their ability to form attachment relationships with foster parents and to regulate their behavior and biology. The authors describe the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC) intervention, an evidence-based intervention aimed at helping foster children develop trusting…

Relationship-based infant mental health home visiting services for infants, toddlers, and their families intensify the connection between the personal and professional. To promote the therapeutic relationship and maximize the effectiveness of the intervention, home visitors must exercise good judgment, in the field and in the moment, to set and…

The early childhood provider, because of the consistent contact over time with infants, toddlers, and their families, is well positioned to observe the nuances of the early caregiving relationship; monitor early child behavior and development; identify deviances; and offer support, guidance, and intervention when families struggle. This…

Sleep behavior disorders do not only affect infants' well-being, they also challenge the parents' physical and emotional resources, promote risks for the growing parent-infant relationships, and burden the parents' co-parenting relationship. Sleep-onset and night waking problems are widely spread among otherwise healthy infants, and they tend to…

Sensitive parenting and secure attachment can serve as protective factors against developmental risks associated with high-risk environments such as homelessness and shelter living. This article describes a program for mothers with children from birth to 3 years old whose families are living in shelters and who are enrolled in PACT: Helping…

This article identifies themes of continuity and change related to the well-being and development of infants and toddlers. The author describes several particularly striking changes over the last 25 years of research and practice in early childhood development. (1) The infant-family field has grown in many professions from a marginal area to a…

This article summarizes the scant existing research on the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on mothers and their babies during the peripartum period and describes a pilot research project within the Infant-Family Service (IFS) at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, an outpatient mental health service for inner-city families with…