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Infant mental health most often implies interdisciplinary practice that began with the work of Selma Fraiberg and her article "Ghosts in the Nursery" among other key figures. [9] Infant mental health practitioners provide relationship-focused interventions to parents, foster parents, and other primary caregivers together with their infants and ...
Psychoanalytic infant observation usually involves observing an infant and mother weekly over a two-year period beginning soon after birth until the child's second birthday. This naturalistic form of experiential enquiry provides a unique opportunity to sharpen and extend the observational skills of future therapists. [ 5 ]
Piontelli interpreted her observations in psychoanalytical terms. Piontelli saw a remarkable continuity between pre- and postnatal mental development. Her study is important, because it combines the assessment of empirical data with the observation of single case studies in the postnatal phase and also in infancy.
It serves to enhance the understanding, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health problems in young children by addressing the identification of disorders not adequately covered by other classification systems. Three core principles guide the DC: 0-5: 1) children's psychological functioning develops within relationships,
Developmental psychologists vary widely in their assessment of infant psychology, and the influence the outside world has upon it. The majority of a newborn infant's time is spent sleeping. [89] At first, their sleep cycles are evenly spread throughout the day and night, but after a couple of months, infants generally become diurnal. [90]
The assessment includes social and biographical information, direct observations, and data from specific psychological tests. It is typically carried out by a psychiatrist , but it can be a multi-disciplinary process involving nurses , psychologists , occupational therapist , social workers , and licensed professional counselors .
An infant's sensitivity to contingencies can be affected by biological factors and environment changes. Studies show that being placed in erratic environments with few contingencies may cause a child to have conduct problems and may lead to depression. (see Behavioral Development and Depression below).
Maternal sensitivity is most commonly assessed during naturalistic observation of free play interactions between mother and child. [4] There are several factors surrounding assessment during observation that may cause differences in results, including the setting (home vs laboratory), the context (free play vs structured task), the length of observation and the frequency of observation.