Tag Archives: infant mental health

The Therapeutic Preschool: An Intensive Intervention for Traumatized 3-6 Year Olds

Summer 2012, Infant Crier, pp 4-8, Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health: A certain number of children with significant challenges need continuing intervention past age 3. They and their parents have trouble making the transition from intensive home-based therapy to more limited or no services during the preschool years. For children, the difficulties of this transition show up as behavioral and emotional problems in childcare or Head Start programs that are not organized to provide therapeutic support. How might services be organized? Treatment would be organized to stress helping preschoolers master self-regulation difficulties by providing them with experiences of mutual regulation with parents and other adults. In addition, more intensive services would be available to preschoolers with significant histories of neglect, abuse, trauma, and loss. Discusses the Building Blocks Therapeutic Preschool program in Oakland, California. Many of the kids at Building Blocks, probably most at any given time, do not live with biological parents; they live instead with relatives and foster parents. Nearly all of the children have significant histories of early trauma and neglect. Link to pdf Infant Crier Issue