Infant and Toddler Program

At Great Kids Place we know that relationships and early interactions between caregivers and infants are the most important part of early development. Through her Advanced Certification in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, our director and founder Michele Parkins, has spent extensive time gaining knowledge in the dynamics of family interaction, understanding theoretical perspectives of infant and early childhood mental health, as well as understanding risk and resiliency. The goal of Great Kid’s Infant and Toddler program is to guide babies and their caregivers through the facilitation of social emotional development, which simultaneously facilitates sensory motor development. Through connections with caregivers, children experience their first emotions accompanied by their first sensations. Sensory stimulation from caregivers allows for children to maintain appropriate levels of arousal which in turn allows children to have the opportunity to reach optimal performance. From birth, as babies are exploring and experiencing their (big, loud, and sometimes scary) new world, the actions and reactions of their caregivers can make them feel safe and secure. As babies learn to move their heads, arms, and legs – they use these movements to become closer to their caregiver. This connection is the spark that starts sensory motor development and envelops it over time.

Throughout the program, parents will engage in and develop attentive attunement. The emotionally charged connection between caregiver and child assists in their ability to remain in physical proximity. As children grow and experience security of physical closeness, they can feel trusting, playful, sociable, confident and motivated to explore away from their caregivers, and then come back to engage with them. Additionally, by having a better understanding of ourselves, how we experience the world, and the expectations we have, we can adjust our actions/reactions to assist in co-regulation. As children grow and develop, co-regulation assists in supporting sensory motor development as well as the development of self-regulation skills by way of providing warm, responsive relationships as well as structure and predictability to the environment. In addition to learning about co-regulation, therapists will work with you on creating a nurturing and developmentally supportive environment.

Another aspect of this program is understanding the similarities and differences of a child and his/her caregivers’ sensory profiles. Why is this important? Just as children grow and develop a sensory motor and social emotional profile of their own, adults create and carry profiles of their own. At times, there may be a mismatch between the child and the parent’s profiles leading to difficulties in parent-child relationships. For example, if a child is over-responsive to touch or sound, and their parent is under-responsive – the parent may be seeking input, but the parent’s touch or volume puts the child into fight or flight. When both people are not experiencing the world the same way, even though they are doing the same things, it can be very difficult to empathize, communicate, and have shared experiences. This program will not only look at child, sibling, and parent profiles but aims to create understanding around what this may look like, provide strategies to navigate these experiences, and facilitate engagement in co-occupations.
 
One way to enrich the child/caregiver relationship as well as sensory motor development is through massage. One of our therapists, AnnMarie Murphy, is a Certified Infant Massage Instructor through the World Institute for Nurturing Communication. This certification provides her with the skills and training necessary to teach caregivers how to provide massage to their infants and growing children. Through her training she has learned massage strokes for children from birth thru adolescents and can tailor the strokes to each individual child that she works with. Cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton’s work on epigenetics (the continuum of DNA development after birth through conscious parenting so that children can thrive and not just survive) is at the center of the Infant Massage triad model. The model is grounded in compassionate communication, safe, positive and creative environments, and nurturing touch. Dr. Lipton explains, that “scientific research reveals that the somatosensory stimuli provided by nurturing touch, movement, and affection significantly improves, the development of a child’s nervous and immune system. The somatosensory experience created by infant massage is an especially effective way for parents to enhance the physiologic and mental health parameter of their children, factors that contribute to the creation of healthy and peaceful adults”. One of the benefits of infant massage via telehealth is that families are already in their natural environment; this facilitates in carry over, using what you already have at home, and provides opportunity to create peaceful nurturing environments for the massage experience.
 
Additionally, another way to enhance development is through utilizing toys as tools. When developmentally appropriate toys are used in a way that guides learning while allowing for engagement between play partners, children have the best opportunity of reaching their potential. At Great Kids Place, we know that neuroplasticity allows for the generation of new synaptic connections, as well as a process called pruining which enables the brain to be the best version of itself that it can be. Notably, at birth, the average newborn has about 2,500 synapses per neuron. By the time an infant is two or three years old, they have approximately 15,000 synapses per neuron – twice that of the average adult brain. This is important for our Infant and Toddlers program, because this time of a child’s life is significantly impactful on their development. In order to develop skills and fine tune skills, children (and their nervous systems) must receive certain sensory inputs and experiences. The connections that are not reinforced by sensory stimulation eventually weaken and the connections that are reinforced become stronger and more efficient. If we can use our environments that are full of sensory experience potential, and scaffold play to help children feel successful – we in turn create an environment that fosters motivation, courage, and engagement. When children are motivated and engaged, they continue to have these experiences which assists in creating efficient pathways of neural connections and fine tuning.

If you are interested in learning more about in person or telehealth services for your child, please contact Michele Parkins at Great Kids Place (973)-586-8396.
 

Your child may benefit from this program if they have difficulty in these areas:

• Has difficulty with grooming (cutting nails, bathing, hair brushing)
• Is a picky eater
• Can’t be messy
• Dislikes having their diaper changed
• Refuses tummy time
• Does not like being held
• Cannot self soothe
• Has difficulty transitioning
• Doesn’t smile at people

Your child may benefit from this program if they have not met these milestones: