Listening In: Lessons from Infants and Caregivers in Early Relational Health, by Dr. Claudia M. Gold

Early childhood educators and other practitioners on the front lines with young children and families often feel great pressure to know “what to do” in a broad variety of challenging situations. Drawing on both developmental science and extensive clinical experience, this webinar, presented by acclaimed author, pediatrician and early relational health expert, Claudia M. Gold, M.D., provides evidence that the exact opposite―a stance of not-knowing―helps us find our way into another person’s experience, offering the greatest opportunity for connection, growth, and healing. Claudia will present a model of “listening in” with an intentional suspension of expectations and a willingness to be surprised. The paradigm of listening in functions as a kind of superpower to enhance teacher–student, professional–parent, and parent–infant relationships.

Early relational health refers to an enhanced focus on the centrality of the relationship between caregivers and very young children for future health, development, and social–emotional well-being. The webinar will examine the perspectives of infant, caregiver, relationship, and culture within the frame of core principles of early relational health including the repair theory of human development, facilitating reflective functioning, and the healing power of safety. While early relational health has roots in primary caregiving relationships, new relationships in a child’s expanding social environment have potential to support and enhance a child’s emerging sense of self, capacity for self-regulation, and ability to be close with others. This webinar will utilize detailed clinical vignettes from Dr. Gold’s clinical practice to illustrate core principles of early relational health. You will have opportunity to consider these ideas as they relate to their experience in the classroom and other professional settings. In this webinar you will learn to:

• Understand the value of working from a stance of not-knowing.

• Recognize the perspective of infant, caregiver, relationship, and culture.

• Describe the role of mismatch and repair in healthy and derailed infant development.

• Apply core principles of early relational health to the setting of early childhood education