Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health training for early years practitioners

Abstract

The importance of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is increasingly recognised. This study evaluates the effectiveness of an IECMH training programme designed to enhance Early Years Practitioners’ (EYPs) skills in promoting children’s social-emotional well-being and development. IECMH training aims to equip EYPs with the knowledge and capacity to support children’s ability to form interpersonal relationships, regulate emotions and improve learning environments. In 2019, Let’s Grow Together! Infant and Childhood Partnerships developed a tailored IECMH training programme for EYPs incorporating current research, principles of the national Nurture Programme and Ireland’s national early years curriculum and quality frameworks. The project aimed to make IECMH science accessible and build capacity in EYPs’ everyday practice. Let’s Grow Together, a community-based organisation in the northwest of Cork city, aims to mitigate child poverty and promote early development (birth to 4 years) through prevention and early intervention strategies. Baseline and follow-up questionnaires evaluated changes in EYPs’ knowledge and practice. EYP-child interactions were systematically observed and measured at pre- and post-training timepoints using the Child Caregiver Interaction Scale. Findings offer insight into the implementation of a tailored IECMH training programme for EYPs, its effectiveness for enhancing EYP competencies to support young children’s social-emotional development and associated child-level impacts. This study provides evidence supporting the effectiveness of a tailored IECMH training programme, coupled with mentoring, to enhance EYP skills and practices.