The Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation, a 45-year study of children born into poverty, offers a number of lessons for practitioners. Among these are the potency of early relationship experiences for predicting developmental outcomes and the fate of early experience following developmental change. This article describes the…

Children of incarcerated parents may face an increased risk for developmental and behavioral problems. Early care and education can play a positive role in addressing these risks and providing positive support. However, these children are largely hidden when it comes to formal early care and education policy and program initiatives. This article…

This article describes an infant and early childhood mental health-informed therapeutic visitation program that offers clinical support, systems-level advocacy, and developmentally appropriate guidance to families navigating the child welfare and family court systems. The program offers treatment, permanency, and placement planning for infants,…

The ParentChild+ Program was created more than 50 years ago and has provided thousands of at-risk families across America with positive outcomes. Originally known as the Mother-Child Home Program and later, Parent-Child Home Program, the model is home visiting, reaching families affected by poverty and societal hardships. This article describes…

Since the 1980s, El Salvador has survived a 12-year civil war, two major earthquakes, devastating hurricanes, a massive drought, a famine, and now the current levels of violence related to gang presence across the country. Nearly everyone has had personal experience with at least one but more likely multiple traumatic experiences during their…

Since 2017, immigration enforcement in the US has increased, and as a consequence, many more young children are vulnerable to being separated from their parents and are living with daily fear and stress of parental deportation. This article documents stories from interviews with early care service providers and immigrant parents in six states…

This article details the impact of Emotional Intelligence (EI) training on the 10-year evolution of the Taos First Steps Home Visiting program. While EI has become standard fare in corporate training and practice, it is less well known in the world of early childhood services. This article highlights interviews with key personnel, both in-house…

The positive impact of healthy relationships on child development is widely accepted. A healthy relationship between mother and child is at risk when a mother experiences symptoms of birth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mothers of children with special needs are at high risk for this disorder and early intervention (EI)…

Including fathers is the next frontier for infant mental health. In this article, the authors describe the inclusion of fathers as equal partners in Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), an evidence-based treatment for young children experiencing or at risk for mental health problems following exposure to violence and other adversities. The authors…

This article describes an intense relationship between an infant mental health (IMH) specialist and a mother-daughter dyad. At intake, an 18-month-old little girl was diagnosed with failure to thrive and a chronic kidney condition, and she was at risk for protective service involvement and possible removal from the family home. The author…

Poverty-associated chronic stress is a serious threat not only to a mother's mental health but also to maternal functioning. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that a mother's brain undergoes dynamic changes to support her transition to parenthood, including better emotion regulation and heightened sensitivity to infants. However, we propose that…

Home visiting (HV) programs serve women at high risk for developing postpartum depression because of factors such as poverty and low social support. Depression poses serious threats not only to mother-child attachment and healthy infant development but also to women's ability to engage with HV services and supports. The Mothers and Babies (MB)…

Depression in pregnant women and mothers of very young children is a pressing public health issue. Maternal depression is linked to a number of serious difficulties for mothers, their young children, and mother-child relationships. Unrecognized and untreated, it can lead to long-lasting impairment for both mothers and their children. However,…

The "My Brother's Keeper" Initiative (Obama, 2014) has helped to attract public attention to the vulnerabilities faced by many boys of color (BOC). In this article, I review what is known about the developmental status of BOC, identify key family practices that are critical to their development, and consider the implications of both for…

Maternal depression, although prevalent in low-income women, is not an inevitable consequence of poverty. Nevertheless, depression is a double burden for impoverished women: compromising infant development and diminishing mothers' ability to benefit from or effectively use home visiting services. Without universal screening, depression is often…