The number and variety of disciplines and practice specialties that are concerned with infants, toddlers and their families are impressive. They include childbirth educators, obstetricians, nurse midwives, lactation counselors, public health nurses, neonatologists, pediatricians and other physicians, pediatric nurses and nurse practitioners, parent educators, child care providers, home health aides, community home visitors, case managers, social workers, juvenile court judges, protective services workers, attorneys, clinical psychologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, early childhood educators, early childhood special educators, parent support specialists, pastoral counselors, pediatric psychologists, speech/language pathologists, audiologists, nutritionists, family therapists, psychiatrists, child psychiatrists, child life specialists, psychoanalysts, respiratory therapists, nannies, and child and family resource personnel.

These professionals and paraprofessionals may work with infants, toddlers and their families as solo practitioners or as staff members of community-based service programs. They may function as members of multidisciplinary teams in specialized treatment settings or as coordinators of a network of services. They may embark on their careers after years of academic training or after the briefest of orientation programs. They may have raised children and grandchildren or may never have changed a diaper.

Clearly no single curriculum or training program will be appropriate for would-be infant/family practitioners who come to training with such different academic backgrounds, different styles of learning, and different career expectations. Yet it is possible to identify four key elements in training that are likely to foster competence in any parent, paraprofessional or professional who seeks to work with infants, toddlers and their families.

1. The knowledge base of any training program for infant/family practitioners should be built on a framework of concepts common to all disciplines concerned with infants, toddlers and their families. These concepts can be expressed in non-technical language and form an important common basis for communication among professionals, paraprofessionals and parents.

2. Opportunities for direct observation and interaction with a variety of children under three and their families are an essential element of training. A supervised practicum or internship allows the student a superb opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to the real tasks of observation, assessment, support and intervention. Also valuable are opportunities to learn from parents, to study and discuss detailed case reports, to observe skilled practitioners at work, and to watch videos of many different infants and families.

3. Individualized supervision allows the trainee to reflect upon all aspects of work with infants, families and colleagues from a range of disciplines. The supervisor helps the student review the information she has gathered and the choices she has made in practice. Questions and comments may direct the student to new lines of inquiry or alternative intervention strategies. The supervisory relationship also affords the trainee a safe place to examine both positive and negative feelings aroused by infants, families and colleagues, and to formulate professional responses.

4. Collegial support, both within and across disciplines, should begin early in training and continue throughout professional life. Group academic projects, informal contacts, and student affiliation with relevant professional and advocacy organizations can all add to a feeling of connectedness with others who are working toward common ends. Early interdisciplinary experiences in classroom and clinical settings can be especially useful in encouraging interdependence and collaboration.

Taken together, these four elements of training involve both process and content. This blend would undoubtedly be helpful in the training of all human services professionals. Attention to both process and content is essential in the training of infant/family practitioners whose professional competence involves the recognition and channeling of their own powerful emotions as well as the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge and therapeutic skill.

Each element of training is discussed in more detail below.

Core concepts for professional practice with infants, toddlers and their families

A set of core concepts should be embedded in the training of all practitioners planning to work with very young children and their families, as well as in the preparation of child development researchers. The concepts identified by the Project emerged as powerful integrators of information across fields of inquiry and as general guides for practice useful to many disciplines. These concepts help to organize what is known about infants and families and to suggest what is yet to be discovered or understood.

Readers of this document will be quite familiar with most, if not all, of these concepts. They are summarized in the pages that follow in language that is specific but non-technical, with the hope that they will become the basis for a common language among educators and trainers in many disciplines, parents, professionals, and policy-makers. Examples of the links between each concept and training issues are intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive.

Core concepts have been grouped into seven areas:

1. Endowment, maturation and individual differences in the first three years of life;
2. The power of human relationships;
3. Transactions between the infant and the environment;
4. Developmental processes and their interrelationship;
5. Risk, coping, adaptation and mastery;
6. Parenthood as a developmental process; and
7. The helping relationship.

Endowment, maturation, and individual differences

Concepts like endowment, maturation and individual differences describe what has traditionally been called an infant's "nature."

The child's biological endowment at birth includes not only limbs, organs and sensory systems that may be intact or impaired, but also capacities for organizing experience and interacting with the environment. Endowment is a function not only of genetics but also of the environment within the womb and the events surrounding birth. The mother's nutrition, infections, use of drugs and psychological experiences affect the unborn baby and influence his developmental potential and his behavior.

There is presently little controversy about which is of paramount importance-nature or nurture. It seems clear that what is significant is the intimate interweaving of the infant's biogenetic endowment and the caregiving environment. The baby's unique endowment calls forth and begins to shape a particular spectrum of responses from the caregiving environment, most importantly the caregiver herself. At the same time, this environment influences and shapes the ways in which the baby experiences and organizes his world, each subtly shaping and modifying the other.

Maturation, an extremely powerful force toward growth in the young child, can be viewed as change due to intrinsic factors that occurs relatively independent of environmental influences. Most human infants exhibit an inherent push toward growth at an expected rate and in an expected sequence following a biologically determined timetable. It is the process of maturation, in interaction with environmental factors, that ensures a basically healthy child's achievement, for example, of major motor milestones, cognitive competencies, and emotional growth in a wide range of caregiving environments.

Individual differences in infants, operative and observable at birth and probably before, have gained increasing attention from researchers during the last 50 years. The notion of individual temperament - a blend of activity level, physical sensitivity, adaptability, tempo, mood, persistence, and similar factors - is one way of conceptualizing sets of differences that influence how young children behave and how parents react to them. One can also look at individual differences in terms of how the baby responds emotionally and socially to environmental input through each of his senses; how the baby processes information through each of his senses; how the baby plans and coordinates movement; and how the baby learns.

The newborn infant's biological endowment, capacity for maturation and distinct individuality are intertwined concepts that include a view of infants actively organizing their world and shaping their lives beginning at birth.

Implications for training

• The concept of endowment is important in training health care professionals who plan to work with very young children and families and who need to acquire a balanced view of their roles. They will not be able to cure every disease nor reverse every impairment. Nevertheless, an understanding of every child's endowment, individuality, and maturational drives will help the professional use her own skills to support a baby's strengths and work toward an optimal developmental outcome.

• Child welfare workers and other professionals who will be encountering infants exposed prenatally to drugs need to be aware of the uncertain developmental course awaiting these children and of the challenges they present to caregivers. Because knowledge in this area is limited but expanding rapidly, foster parents, community-based workers and researchers need to be able to exchange findings quickly and regularly.

The power of human relationships

Several decades ago British pediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott shocked his colleagues by declaring "There is no such thing as a baby"--only a baby and someone. Today, parents, practitioners, and researchers take it for granted that in order to understand the unfolding of developmental processes, one must look at the infant in the context of his environment and, most particularly, in the context of his relationships with the caregivers in his life.

Healthy babies are born prepared to form warm emotional relationships with one or more responsive caregivers. Babies who have illnesses, disabilities or other conditions that interfere with their ability to form and enjoy human relationships require special attention.

The quality of the relationship between a baby and the people who care for him every day affects the baby's development in all areas. The infant's very ability to think and to feel is developed through relationships. In addition, the quality of important relationships teaches the infant or toddler what to think and feel about the world and the people in it: Is the world an interesting or a frightening place? Can human beings be depended on, or should they be avoided? Are his feelings about himself and others important or not? Because relationships are so crucial to the unfolding of developmental processes, separation from a caregiver or loss of an important early relationship has an immediate impact and may also reverberate through childhood and beyond.

A parent's relationship with a particular baby is influenced by relationships among all members of the family, as well as by the infant's individual qualities. Researchers continue to discover more facets of the enduring impact of family relationships, even across generations.

Pregnancy, the process of adoption, the birth of a baby, and the presence of a developing infant in a family can evoke memories and feelings and reactive patterns of behavior and expectations. At the same time, the baby becomes the center of a set of relationships that never before existed. Hope for the infant's future often mobilizes the adults in his life to repair, strengthen, or create positive relationships that will help the whole family to grow.

Implications for training

• Prospective infant/family workers can be given opportunities to observe and learn about the variety of ways in which families incorporate new members. Sustained contact with one or two families over a period of time allows a trainee to delve into how particular infants find a place in their families and what impact that has on all other family members. Contact with infants and families from a variety of cultural backgrounds allows a trainee to explore both commonalities and differences in this process.

• The emotional relationship Students in disciplines that have worked with parents primarily as adjunct teachers can learn much about the multidimensional nature of an infant with disabilities by attending closely to the parental responses to the baby. Professionals can learn to take advantage of the perspective of the parent not only as the child's foremost teacher but as the single most important person in his world.

Training in developmental assessment can emphasize the importance of observing and documenting between the infant and his parents and other caregivers.

Transactions between the infant and the environment

Enduring and responsive human relationships are critical for the infant. During the first three years of life, the safety, comfort, level and variety of stimulation available in the physical environment also affect developmental processes. It is the baby's caregivers, however, who mediate his world. Through the physical environment and the experiences they offer, they activate, nourish, and facilitate growth within and across all developmental areas or, conversely, act in ways that impede progress.

What the world feels like to a baby, as he learns about it through his senses and his interactions with people and things, is important and has been described by numerous researchers. As investigators conceptualize the infant as an active being, they speak of him as "processing" and "organizing" his experience, using the learning, motor, sensory and emotional tools available to him.

Implications for training

• Therapists who are preparing to work with young children with sensory or motor impairments need to learn to provide opportunities and encouragement for active exploration of the environment.

• The adult's ability to take the imaginative leap necessary to try to understand how the baby may be experiencing a situation is a key element in parenting, as well as in professional interactions with young children. Parent education programs as well as training programs for professionals and paraprofessionals need to emphasize this kind of empathy and reflection.

Developmental processes and their interrelationship

Development in the earliest years of life is a complex process involving the interaction of forces within the child as well as interaction between the child and the environment.

The baby's interaction with the human and physical environment affects each area of development and affects them in combination. Thus, for example, a positive experience with a caregiver may encourage problem solving and language development as well as emotional growth.

The remarkable achievements and changes in ability and behavior that typically occur during the first three years of life can be recognized as occurring in phases and stages. At some points, if the child's growth is proceeding typically in its multiple domains and the environment is reasonably encouraging, new levels of developmental organization will be evident. Awareness of major developmental milestones, like walking and talking, has been expanded to include cognitive, social and emotional landmarks.

The concepts of continuity, change, and prediction are useful in thinking about how growth takes place. Researchers have addressed questions such as: What characteristics of an infant tend to remain stable over time? To what extent do critical times exist for certain kinds of development? What predictions can be made from earlier to later functioning? These are the kinds of questions that parents, particularly parents of children with disabilities or chronic illness, ask often in one form or another. Although answers to these questions are far from clear, these issues are ones with far-reaching implications for the structure and content of services to support the development of young children and families, and for training.

Implications for training

• The multiple areas of development interacting within the infant or toddler are often reflected in the multiple disciplines assembled in a team to assist the child and family. Consequently, the training of any one professional needs to include an awareness of the knowledge and expertise of related disciplines. Opportunities to function as a member of a multidisciplinary team also need to be part of professional training.

• Just as multiple areas of development are interrelated in the child, so therapeutic interventions and caregiving environments must support growth within and across all areas of development, in close association, to be maximally effective. As parents and professionals learn new skills for working with infants and toddlers, they need also to integrate these into the context of daily routines and interaction.

• The concepts of predictable tasks or challenges and ways of perceiving the world can be useful ways of thinking about phases and stages of growth for any professional who works with young children and families. Practitioners who tend to see children with developmental problems often express a need for a thorough grounding in the stages of typical development. At the same time, courses built around developmental milestones need to emphasize individual variationsin all areas of development.

• Students being trained to work as professionals in a rapidly evolving field need to be as aware of unanswered questions as of state-of-the-art knowledge. All professionals need to develop tools to evaluate new research findings in their own and related disciplines and commit to continuing education as the key to continuing competence.

Risk, coping, adaptation and mastery

Although adults strive to protect children from needless suffering, it is clear that pain and frustration are a part of life, even for infants and toddlers. Researchers have studied risks to development and the processes of coping, adaptation and mastery of challenges. A wide range of factors, including handicapping conditions, birth injuries, poverty, and parental stress, have long been identified as risks to the healthy development of young children. Researchers are now pointing to the accumulation and interaction of multiple risk factors as much more damaging than any single source of stress.

But babies do not simply endure adversity; they cope with it. If adults can observe and understand how infants marshal their own resources and help from caregivers to cope with the challenges of their world, they will be better able to encourage the young child's creativity and initiative.

In considering the infant's adaptation to the environment, attention to the quality of the child's experience and the "cost" of adjustment is essential. Healthy adaptation may be seen, for example, in the toddler who consistently obeys his parent in unfamiliar surroundings but can be occasionally full of two-year-old mischief in the safe environment of home. Much different is the adaptation of a baby who is always quiet and passive in the presence of an abusing parent. While this behavior may ensure his survival in the short term, in the long term it is likely to constrict the child's social and emotional development.

Most infants and toddlers exhibit both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. The important thing to consider is the ways in which a particular child balances inner needs or conflict with the reality of the caregiving environment.

The concept of mastery is helpful in understanding not only how babies overcome obstacles but how they learn in general. The infant's pleasure in discovery and delighted recognition that he has mastered a skill important to him provides the emotional incentive for further efforts. Curiosity and persistence will take the child far in learning. What is required, then, is caregivers who are sensitively attuned to the infant and who can engage in reciprocal rather than unilateral interactions.

Implications for training

• Unless students are systematically exposed to theoretical and research literature concerning vulnerability, coping and growth, and unless they have opportunities to learn about multiple aspects of families' circumstances, they are likely to operate from a narrow perspective once they begin professional practice. Training experiences that provide exposure to the perspectives of a variety of disciplines and offer opportunities to observe families in a range of situations over a period of time can offset this tendency.

• Training experiences that allow students to observe infants and families repeatedly over time emphasize the importance of attention to adaptive processes, in screening, assessment and treatment. They allow students to begin to understand the quality of the child's experience and the ways in which the phenomena of vulnerability and resilience are operating.

Parenthood as a developmental process

Experience with healthy and with troubled parents of young children has suggested to researchers that parenthood is a developmental process, with its own challenges, stages, and demands for adaptation and accommodation. It is generally acknowledged that few parents come to the task with formal training. As parents assume new roles and responsibilities, their attitudes toward the newborn and the growing infant are influenced by their previous experiences of nurturing and being cared for, by their cultural heritage, and by current realities in their life situation. Also important are the support available to them from each other and from other family members and friends, and the characteristics of the child himself, including any illness or disability he might have.

The family can be seen as an evolving system. influenced by each of its members. In the first three years of life, the rapidly changing capacities and needs of the child stimulate different reactions in parents, which then influence subsequent relationships between and among all family members.

Implications for training

• An understanding of parent and family development and the ways in which adults learn needs to be as integral a part of professional education as child development.

• Careful attention must be focused on appropriate opportunities for trainees to study parent and family development first-hand through parent interviews, sustained contact with families, and other practices.

The helping relationship

When a parent and another adult undertake to work together to foster a baby's development, a relationship begins that may be enormously powerful and is always delicate. The quality of the parent/provider relationship must be of concern to anyone working with infants, toddlers and their families.

Parents, of course, have primary responsibility for their children, but they need to be able to rely on a variety of informal and professional allies who can contribute expertise and assistance. The relationships that are established, whether short or long term, should be based on respect and cooperation around shared goals. But this is not always easy to achieve given the inevitable strains that occur when people work closely together.

Relationships may become as rich and meaningful as family ties-for parents and providers alike-and they almost certainly will reflect the range of emotions, both positive and negative, that exist in any family. They will undoubtedly undergo change over time as the provider becomes less the "expert" and more the facilitator, and roles and responsibilities shift. Such partnerships can offer an opportunity for growth on both sides as issues and problems are worked on and hopefully resolved.

Both service providers and family members bring to the relationship unique knowledge and skills. In addition they bring attitudes and feelings based on their histories of involvement with their families of origin, their current families, and formal and informal helpers. Sometimes feelings are based on positive experiences of being cared for, respected, encouraged, and admired. Sometimes feelings reflect experiences of disappointment, neglect, fear or humiliation.

Whenever the well-being of a baby is at issue, feelings tend to be intensified, for parent and service provider alike. Both are sensitive and both are vulnerable, and both want to feel capable and effective. A commitment to listen and to try to uncover how the parent is experiencing the helping relationship can add a rich dimension to professional practice and give the parent a clear signal that his or her perspective is both needed and wanted.

Implications for training

• As relationships between parents and professionals are reconceptualized, careful attention is needed to the training experiences that will enable professionals to assume supportive, informed, but non-authoritarian roles. Some options include more widespread use of practice and the use of parents in the training of personnel.

• Students need opportunities to explore the vulnerabilities and unrealistic expectations they may bring to relationships. For example, a wish to be unfailingly nurturing, a dread of not knowing "the answer," a desire to supersede or displace the mother are each issues that need to be fully explored.

• Training experiences should be designed to help practitioners understand the impact of their own experiences with their family of origin and current family, and their expectations of how family members "should" behave.

Many volumes have been written about each of the core concepts described above. Theoretical elaboration and empirical testing of these ideas continue to enrich the field. Readers are encouraged to use the sources listed below to obtain additional information about infant/ family literature, research and training within individual disciplines and across disciplines.

Opportunities for direct observation and interaction with infants and families

The second key element in training, observation and interaction with infants and families, is an essential ingredient in the long-term process of translating theory and research into effective practice. Such contact may take many forms, ranging from classroom discussion of videotapes to practicum experiences.

When they occur over an extended period of time, such contacts may help the student learn to observe and understand the responses of particular families to the birth and unfolding development of particular infants, in all their complexity.

Opportunities to watch video presentations that depict typically and atypically developing infants, toddlers and their families in a variety of activities are valuable. Observations of infants and parents at home on a typical morning, getting a well-child checkup, or working with an occupational therapist enable students to construct a full picture of families as they go about their daily lives. These opportunities can also lead the student to develop the critically important skill of keen and sensitive observation, not only of infants and families, but also of a range of professionals and work settings.

Following these observations, there should be time for reflection, with an emphasis on recognizing and processing personal responses to what is observed. In this way students begin to take first important steps toward self-understanding as they explore the impact that personal views and biases can have on practice. They begin to formulate ideas about what makes them respond to and work differently with certain families. This process can provide indications of the comfort or difficulty an emerging professional might expect in an infant/family career.

Contact with infants, toddlers, and their families can highlight the central role of the parent in the unfolding of developmental processes and the partnership that must occur between parent and practitioner if the child's circumstances or problems are to improve. Rather than relegating parents to the background of work with the child, as frequently happens, training experiences should encourage students to consider parents as partners in any attempt to address the child's needs.

Contact should also encourage awareness of the tremendous individual variations in typical and atypical development and of cultural differences in child rearing practices and family life. Students need to learn and to appreciate the great variety of culturally diverse, adaptive, growth-enhancing responses on the part of parents to important developmental issues and events, as well as responses that may be less adaptive and facilitating to ongoing development. Students also need to become aware of their own ingrained responses to cultural differences, particularly of any critical or pejorative attitudes that could undermine effective work with families.

When parents come into the classroom as lecturers or adjunct faculty members, students have an opportunity to engage directly with them. This experience may allow some of the misconceptions that parents and new professionals hold about each other to be dispelled. Students receive a first-hand account of parents' experiences with professionals, both positive and negative. The compelling nature of the partnership that needs to be forged between parents and professionals on behalf of children may become clearer.

Practicum experiences present students with the challenge of continuing to try to interweave theory and practice. Students are asked to participate actively with infants and families and other professionals in multiple settings. Some programs stress the need for the student to spend substantial time with one family in order to get to know them more fully. Others emphasize working with a variety of families, thereby deriving a broader view. Students may have an opportunity to participate in staff inservice training in a particular program, learning beside practicing professionals.

The benefits to educators and trainers of varied and sustained contact with infants, families, and practicing professionals parallel the benefits to students. There are likely to be significant gains for both preservice and inservice training when substantial cross-fertilization occurs. Faculty may consult with service programs and use their experiences as case studies back in the classroom. Then, may assist with inservice training in their local community or beyond, helping to bridge the distance between theory, research and practice. They can themselves provide models for professional development when they, continue to seek training opportunities throughout their careers.

Individualized supervision

Ongoing and sensitive supervision throughout all levels of training seems to be a key ingredient in helping the student or practitioner integrate knowledge and skills and make them her own.

Early in preservice training, good supervision may resemble mentorship. A budding professional may find invaluable the chance to spend time with a teacher who continually conveys the excitement and challenge of working with infants, toddlers and their families. A faculty member can serve as a model, a monitor, and a guide-a person with whom the student can learn ways of approaching questions and problems through sharing thoughts, ideas and feelings with a responsive, nonjudgmental advisor.

When a student is considering seriously the possibility of specializing in work with infants, toddlers and their families, a faculty advisor can help her think through and prepare for the difficulties as well as the rewards of such a choice. Will she be able to maintain her commitment, given the typically low status and compensation that derive from working with this population. How might she keep from becoming discouraged if she finds herself with too many children and families to serve and too little support from administrators and colleagues?

Once students have progressed in training to the point where they are practicing the skills of their profession with infants, toddlers and families, they need opportunities to examine why they have chosen a particular approach with a family and, if it is unsuccessful, to formulate a new one. They need to be able to say why this new approach seems to have potential and how they might evaluate results. This sometimes difficult analysis and rethinking may best be accomplished during individual supervision, where it is "safe" to explore complex issues.

Even at the preservice level, many and powerful feelings are likely to surface as students come into contact with infants and families and other professionals. When these first few contacts begin, students must not only be allowed, but rather need to be encouraged, to examine their responses and to clarify their feelings about the quality of the developing relationship with child and family. Why does a student feel incredibly frustrated with a particular mother? Why is one child so appealing while another elicits negative feelings? What emotional defenses is a student using to protect herself against the sense of helplessness she feels when working with a particular multi-risk family? The value of reflecting on such questions can be further magnified if the supervisor underscores the ongoing nature of such reflection on the use of the parent/ practitioner relationship by sharing her own questions and struggles on similar issues.

Supervision also eases the process of learning to become an effective team member. Openness and a willingness to cooperate with others are qualities that may have to be developed through a variety of experiences over a period of time. Students, therefore, need an opportunity to recognize and work through ambivalent and perhaps negative feelings associated with working closely with other professionals. If discomfort is denied, for whatever reason, professional effectiveness is likely to be impeded.

The greater self-awareness that may come as a result of these kinds of experiences in supervision can be a catalyst for personal and professional growth throughout a career. If reflective practice becomes second nature at the very beginning of the training process, it may help to sustain a practitioner, even one whose work environment leaves much to be desired.

In inservice training, supervision may indeed be the single most important element, helping practitioners attempt to explore the practice decisions they make and relate them to theory and research. At the level of professional development, supervision may entail peer consultation and review of work by colleagues.

Opportunities to learn effective supervisory skills and to practice them need to be developed. The supervisor or mentor is constantly modeling for the trainee how to supervise and how to consult. This process may well be the most effective way of teaching these skills. Those assuming consultant roles must be trained in such a manner chat the individual practitioner receiving the service feels that she is dealing with a knowledgeable, sensitive person who knows what it is like to be in the practitioner's position.

At every level, supervision is a very individualized approach to learning. It requires educators and trainers to become skilled at helping each student delve into thoughts and feelings that are not always comfortable or easy to explore. It is a way for each student to find her own path to greater competence.

Collegial support

Since collaboration among a number of disciplines is essential to provide comprehensive, integrated services to very young children and their parents, collaboration should begin in preservice training. While the expectation of supportive rather than competitive contact with colleagues may be one of the chief attractions of a career in infancy, in actuality there are inevitable strains as varied disciplines attempt to work together. Careful thought and commitment are needed to help students become interdependent professionals.

At the preservice level, class discussions, group research projects, and team practicum experiences can offer opportunities to develop and practice collaborative skills, within or across disciplines. Again, reflection should be encouraged, with students asked to observe group process and their own contributions to group achievements or difficulties.

Since infant/family work often occurs within an agency or institution, students should have the opportunity to discuss and compare, as a group, their own practicum placements and to explore criteria related to more or less supportive work settings.

The development of a positive professional identity can be encouraged by linking students to organizations of practitioners in the multidisciplinary field of infancy. If infant/family course-work at a particular university is limited, students may be guided to appropriate sequences of presentations at professional conferences. This kind of involvement may motivate a student to begin to explore the infant/family literature and further opportunities for training.

At the level of inservice training, mutual support among colleagues is gaining increasing recognition as an appropriate area for systematic study. Workshops, print materials and even nationwide teleconferences have been developed to facilitate the complex process of developing mutual respect and interdependence among members of multidisciplinary teams serving young children and their families. Even if practitioners have a professional background in common, effort is required by administrators and front-line service providers alike to create an atmosphere of openness, collaboration, and support for the expression of feeling.

Faculty of educational institutions who are called upon to address the inservice training needs of community agencies will thus want to consider process as well as content. The importance of a supportive environment for staff can be emphasized in the planning of inservice training.

At the level of professional development, teachers and administrators in educational institutions should be the beneficiaries as well as the providers of support. Because professional isolation is an issue for infant/family practitioners, researchers and educators alike, national, state and local organizations concerned with infants and families can provide an important sense of connection. Through attending and speaking at meetings and conferences, contributing to or editing publications, informal networking, and advocacy, educators and trainers can expand their own professional horizons and enjoy an impact beyond the campus. State policy-makers are aware of major gaps in the system of preparing personnel to work with infants and toddlers with handicaps and their families but often are at a loss for practical short-term or long-range solutions. Educators who are able to collaborate across disciplines on recommendations and to join forces with practitioners and parents may be able to make significant contributions to policy development.

Resources for further information

Please note that the contact information was accurate in the original 1990 publication and some names and numbers may have changed.

The following organizations, in general, are resources for information on scholarly and professional publications, accredited preservice training programs, continuing education initiatives, and standards for practice.

Professional Organizations

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
3615 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 966-7300

American Academy of Family Physicians
600 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20024
(202) 488·7448

American Academy of Pediatrics
141 Northwest Point Blvd.
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
(708)228-5005

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
1717 K Street, NW, #407
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 429-1825

American Association of Pastoral Counselors
9508-A Lee Highway
Fairfax, VA 22031
(703) 385-6967

American College of Nurse-Midwives
1522 K Street, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 289-0171

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
409 l2th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 638-5577

American Dietetic Association
216 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60606-6995
1-800-877-1600

American Nurses Association Center for Nursing Practice
2420 Pershing Road
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816) 474-5720

American Occupational Therapy Association
1383 Piccard Drive
Box 1725
Rockville, MD 20850
(301) 948-9626

American Physical Therapy Association
1111 North Fairfax Street
Alexandria, VA 22314 (703) 684-2782

American Psychological Association
1200 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 955-7600

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
10801 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
(301) 897-5100

ASPO/Lamaze
1840 Wilson Blvd., Suite 204
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 524-7802

Childbirth Education Association
P.O. Box 1609
Springfield, VA 22151
(708) 941-7183

Child Welfare League of America
440 First Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 638-2952

Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition
1718 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 265-9090

Council for Exceptional Children
The Division for Early Childhood
1920 Association Drive
Reston, VA 22091
(703) 620-3660

Family Resource Coalition
230 North Michigan Avenue
Suite 1625
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 726-4750

Federation for Children with Special Needs
95 Berkeley Street, Room I04
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 482-2915

International Nanny Association
P.O. Box 26522
Austin, TX 78755-0522
1-800-274-6462

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
1834 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009-5786
(202) 232-8777

National Association for Family Day Care (NAFDC)
Children's Foundation
725 l5th Street, NW, Suite 505
Washington, DC 20005
1-800-359-3817 or (202) 347-3356

National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates & Practitioners
1101 Kings Highway North, Suite 206
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
(609) 667-1773

National Association of Social Workers
7981 Eastern Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910
(301) 565-0333

National Foster Parent Association, Inc.
226 Kilts Drive
Houston, TX 77024
(713) 467-1850

Interdisciplinary Organizations Concerned with Infants and Toddlers

Association for the Care of Children's Health
3615 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 244·1801

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies
409 l2th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024·2188
(202) 863-2458

INTERACT
20 Hollis Road
East Brunswick, NJ 08816
(201) 390-0134
(leave message)

International Association for Infant Mental Health (IAIMH)
Psychology Research Bldg., Room 129
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1117
(517) 355-4599

International Society for Infant Studies (ISIS)
4260 Girouard, Suite 100
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H4A 3C9
(514) 485-0855

National Association for Perinatal Addiction Research and Education (NAPARE)
11 E. Hubbard St., Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 329-2512

Parent Care, Inc.
101½ South Union St.
Alexandria, VA 22814
(703) 836-4678

Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
1203 Tolman Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
(415) 642-5825

World Association for Infant Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines (WAIPAD)
Joy D. Osofsky, Ph.D.
Louisiana State University
Medical Center
Department of Pediatrics
1542 Tulane Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112
(504) 568-6221

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