Jean Clinton and Lorrie McGee set on a mission to highlight the importance of mental health in the infant and early years. Their vision and goal is that:
“In communities across Ontario, early years and child care programs will create and nurture conditions where all experience foundational conditions for healthy social emotional development and recognize when there are challenges to that healthy development”.
To this end, they developed “Big Ideas for the Care of Tiny Humans” which is a series of learning modules that focuses on selected core concepts essential to infant and early years mental health. The five (5) learning modules consist of video segments that move us through the science of social-emotional development and a reflective guide that fosters pedagogical engagement with these core concepts.
Visit this link to learn more!
So, in the fall of 2024, we welcomed Jean Clinton and Lorri McGee into our own community (County of Wellington and City of Guelph) and hosted the Infant and Early Years Mental Health Deep Dive Learning Day. Some of you may have participated in that event. The goal for this day was to launch Big Ideas for the Care of Tiny Humans.
Now, we are honouring our community’s commitment to engaging in this project, by launching the Infant Early Years Mental Health (IEYMH) Community Conversations.
These conversations will be offered as a 4-part series, each series focusing on one of the five (5) modules. During these sessions we will watch the module video together, engage in dialogue with each other about infant and early years mental health concepts in each specific module, and consider ways of bringing these ideas alive in practice. The modules include:
• Module 1: Care
• Module 2: Attachment
• Module 3: Emotions
• Module 4: Self
• Module 5: Self-Regulation
We will focus on the study of Module 1: Care in the first 4-part series. The sessions will run once a month from February to May 2026.
When you register, you are committed to attend all four sessions in the series.
After completion of the 4 sessions, you will receive a certificate of completion with a sticker that shows that you have completed Module 1.
IEYMH Community Conversations about Module 2 will start in the Winter of 2026, so stay tuned for that!
Dates for Module 1 in-person sessions:
• February 24
• March 31
• April 28
• May 26
This session requires a minimum of ten participants. Participants will be notified by email a week in advance if cancellation is necessary.
