Unlocking Our Implicit Biases Regarding Parenting Practices to Deepen Relations With Families

Explore parenting practices from cultures worldwide and which of these practices triggers implicit biases. Develop a deeper understanding of the “why” behind various parenting practices and the diverse families entering your program. Learn strategies to build relationships with families while embracing cultural differences and helping families better understand your program. All too often, implicit bias is at the root of issues for Black and Brown children and their families. The immediate assumptions that are made regarding intelligence or ability simply from initial impressions have a far-reaching negative reach. As we have seen in higher maternal death rates for Black and Brown women and higher rates of expulsions/ special education referrals for Black and Brown boys, the White professionals working with a BIPOC population are still needing additional education surrounding their ability to identify their own implicit biases in order to ensure these biases do not play a role in their work. In this presentation, I challenge participants to examine their implicit biases surrounding parenting practices. When educators, especially caregivers working with very young children, bring in their set of beliefs as the “right” way to do something, it results in negating the cultural preferences or beliefs of the family they are working with. My goal is to have participants see color, see the unique differences between families’ parenting practices, and value these practices, especially when they differ from what the participants believe. I want participants to leave this session with a greater understanding and respect for parenting practices that are widely accepted in other social settings so that participants can better understand and guide conversations with families from a different culture in the future. Ultimately, this partnership based on understanding and acceptance will lead to the best understanding of what the child needs in order to reach their full potential.
Primary Focus Area: Family Engagement
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

“You are my other me”

In their workshop, “You Are My Other Me," First-Generation and BIPOC-affirming practitioners Sunny Cho and Jenny Lopez delve into the transformative power of Reflective Consultation Groups in the realm of Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation. By intertwining their personal stories, both will share on the inception, design, implementation, and evaluation of virtual Reflective Consultation Groups offered across early education centers throughout California, since the inception of the COVID-19 global pandemic to present. Both will reflect openly on the evolution of Reflective Consultation Groups, paralleling their own growth stories - now focusing on creating a supportive community for early education professionals, as well as offering emotional respite and fostering brave dialogues around collective grief and loss, racial trauma, and systematic oppression. Sunny and Jenny aim to inspire fellow consultants to embrace Reflective Group Consultation as a tool for both personal and collective growth, and helpful in promoting a culture of wellness among early childhood education communities. This workshop will emphasize the importance of co-facilitation in Reflective Consultation Groups as a deliberate practice to enhance workforce development and long-term sustainability.
Primary Focus Area: Reflective Supervision
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

Using Qualitative Data to Elevate Stakeholder Voices in Virginia’s ECMHC Pilot

This workshop presentation explores the transformative potential of qualitative research and evaluation in promoting equity within the context of early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC). Often when programs and services are designed, they do not draw on lived experiences of the communities they serve which continues to promote deficit ideas about children, families, and their communities, particularly for children and families of color (O'Cathain et al., 2019). This workshop will show how qualitative research can strengthen programs and services by incorporating the voices of the communities that they are designed for. VDOE allocated federal relief dollars to fund an ECMHC pilot in early care and education (ECE) classrooms during the 2022-2023 school year in Virginia with three key objectives. The pilot was to aid ECE teachers in supporting children’s social-emotional needs in response to COVID-19, prevent suspensions and expulsions, and explore the feasibility of expanding the pilot to an eventual statewide ECMHC model (Partee et al, 2023). To understand implementation of the Virginia ECMHC pilot, we collected data using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In this presentation we will share findings and experiences from the qualitative strand of the study, specifically focusing on the insights gathered through video-cued focus groups and interviews with teachers, program directors, and families of children who received ECMHC services.
Primary Focus Area: Evaluation Design
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

Building a theory-driven evaluation of IECMHC: CoE Tips and Tools

This workshop presentation will feature research and evaluation resources from the Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (CoE for IECMHC), covering topics such as writing an IECMHC evaluation plan and measuring IECMHC. The workshop will demonstrate how a theory-driven evaluation can enhance the existing evidence base and help formulate future research and evaluation questions.
Primary Focus Area: Evaluation Design
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

Supporting Teachers in Building Relationships with Families and Caregivers

In this presentation, we will briefly cover topics such as attachment, mental health, and stressors that could impact the ability to form and maintain relationships. We will then model how to create a 'relationship building' toolbox using concepts from infant mental health and clinical social work. Finally, we will end with a case vignette and small breakout group discussions using the relationship building tools.
Primary Focus Area: Family Engagement
Resource Type: Assessment/Observation/Outcome Measures

Affirmed, Valued, Esteemed: AVEnue to Equity in ECE Workforce

The well-being, equitable support, and retention of Early Childhood educators is in urgent need of intentionally focused attention, especially for educators who identify as Black, Brown, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). On the heels of a global pandemic, many of these educators are navigating unprecedented complexities of everyday life, both professionally and personally. BIPOC educators are adversely impacted by numerous intersectionalities that can lead to confining states of personal and emotional distress. “Pervasive structural inequities across the early care and education workforce have been deepened by the pandemic, with Black, Hispanic, and Native American populations experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and morbidity (Mude et al., 2021). Job stress, burnout, and depressive symptoms are commonly reported by early educators and are associated with both diminished quality of learning environments and high job turnover.” (Johnson et al., 2020). The presenters strongly believe that providing personal development support such as Life Coaching, will positively impact outcomes not only for the educators, but for their students as well. Emotionally healthy educators who feel affirmed, valued, and esteemed, are capable of supporting the emotional/social development of young learners. They are also more likely to grow in their teaching practice as they experience greater job satisfaction and increased teacher effectiveness. This session will highlight overlooked issues and concerns that adversely impact many BIPOC early educators' mental and emotional well-being, and overall teaching performance. We will also explore the benefits of developing an effective ECE workforce by implementing comprehensive system changes that can provide individualized personal and professional development opportunities such as life coaching.
Primary Focus Area: Equity
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Heart of the Consultative Stance

Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation is founded on the "Consultative Stance" which is centered on building, nourishing, and maintaining positive and responsive relationships with the adults we are directly working with and those (adults and children) who are indirectly impacted by our work. Participants will learn that by implementing all components of the Consultative Stance, you will be providing culturally responsive supports to better serve our families as outlined in the Diversity Informed Tenets.
Primary Focus Area: Consultative Stance
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

Raising Awareness in IECMHC with an Equity Lens

The presentations foundation is derived from Dr. Katherine M. Zinsser’s' research on Illinois preschool suspension and expulsion. In the research, of the Early Childhood professionals and providers that have expelled young children, "Nearly 40% had never heard of IECMHC and made at least one expulsion during that same year". The Illinois Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development utilized Governor's Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funds to generate content to inform a multimedia and multi-lingual raising awareness campaign. This raising awareness campaign efforts focused on the diverse audiences including, Family Child Care Homes, program leaders, Head Start/Early Head start, administrators, parents/families/caregivers, state leaders, higher education and IECMH consultants. This raising awareness campaign consist of new resources that provide key information for Consultation in Infant and Early Childhood Education and Care programs. These concise and informative one-pagers (16 in total) and videos are available in multiple languages and tailored for specific audiences. Whether you are a leader or administrator of home visiting, preschool, and center-based child care programs, the parent or a family member of children in need of services, a stakeholder in childhood education and care, or someone who is looking to begin a fulfilling new career. This session will describe efforts to engage cross-system partners such as Early Intervention, Head Start/Early Head Start, Home visitors, child care, and our state board of education programs-prevention initiatives, preschool for all and preschool for all expansion. Equity is at the forefront of project from the multilingual and diverse audiences which considers multiple perspectives. Intentional efforts and cross-sector stakeholders were used to design and develop the one-pagers and videos, which takes into consideration provider representation, diverse family structures and how providers saw themselves in the videos. We were able to partner with families, providers, etc. to ensure their voices and experiences informed the design and implementation of the Raising awareness materials. Ensured equitable access and distribution of resources.
Primary Focus Area: Equity
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

Advancing Equity in Early Care for Families of Infants and Toddlers with Complex Needs

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on children and families- deepening disparities and inequities. Sadly, some families with young children have been left behind- disconnected from vital developmental, educational and health services. This session will highlight cross sector partnerships between IECMHC and community providers seeking to re-engage families with infants and toddlers with complex needs. Join us for stories and insights into how the IECMHC role is helping support and guide innovative efforts to improve equity in early care in Ohio.
Primary Focus Area: Equity
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars

Linking IECMHC with Mental Health Professional Development and Why it Matters

Join me as I explore how training as a mental health professional supports the work of an Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant. What clinical skills are used in the everyday work of an IECMHC? How does clinical training inform the IECMHC in conceptualizing each unique situation and forming next steps? Does an IECMHC need to be trained as a mental health professional to do this work? I invite you to reflect with me as the need for IECMHCs continues to increase, yet the availability of viable candidates remains a challenge.
Primary Focus Area: Challenges in IECMHC
Resource Type: Online Trainings/Tutorials/Webinars