Understanding Babies’ Communication & Sleep (0 to 12 Months)

Workshop Aims

• To provide community staff with up-to-date evidence-based knowledge to develop an understanding of infant mental health, brain development and the importance of how early experiences impact on child/adult relationships.
• For professionals to develop an understanding of what babies are trying to say; to enable them to support parents in gaining confidence with tuning into and regulating their babies.
• To understand the evolving sleep patterns of babies up to a year old and how parents can support their baby to encourage early good sleep habits.

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this workshop participants will be able to:
• Understand how early relationships can influence the development of the infants’ brain and mental health.
• Explore crying babies and its impact on the baby and their carer.
• Understand the subtle cues of babies from birth onwards.
• Offer parents anticipatory advice to encourage early good sleep habits.
• Enable parents to respond to their baby’s cues in a sensitive, timely manner so the baby feels safe secure and loved; this is particularly important for parents who are struggling to bond with their baby, possibly as a result of postnatal depression or having experienced adverse childhood experiences themselves.