A Focus on Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health

January 2025

Separations: Helping Children Cope with Grief and Loss

This newsletter focuses on sharing information on infant/early childhood mental health and the importance of relationship-based approaches and supports that help infants and young children feel safe, supported, and valued by the adults around them. The newsletter, and the Infant Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) program, is made possible by a partnership between the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) and the Pennsylvania Key.

Welcome

Welcome to the new year!

The January 2025 edition of Bright Start Bright Futures explores how to support children experiencing separation. This month, we will focus on separation due to grief and loss. We recognize that grief and loss are felt differently by everyone, including children, and that there is no right way for a person to grieve. 

We have included resources to support children with an incarcerated loved one, as incarceration is a loss of that person’s presence in day-to-day life. Children experiencing incarceration have a unique set of challenges that we recognize and need to support as well. 

Please, as always, take care of yourself as you care for children and families enduring challenging circumstances.  

Did You Know?

When Difficult Things Happen: A guide from the Fred Rogers Institute for supporting children through hard moments in life, this easy-to-read PDF shares kind words you can say to children experiencing loss and lists the best things you can do to support them in the process.

Helping Children Cope with Grief and Death

Helping Children Cope with Death and Loss. Kaplan Early Learning Company created this article to display opportunities for adjustment for children who are going through the grieving process. It provides bullet points on child development, insights on coping with grief, and recommended responses to parents/ families, children’s peers, and educators in the classroom.

Ways to Support A Child Who Is Grieving. This one-page resource details 10 ways to support the grieving child. These are listed in bullet form with a brief description of the activity and/ or behavior. For example, creating rituals and new traditions to acknowledge grief and honor their memory is helpful!

Helping Children Deal with Grief. This link explores opportunities to build healthy coping skills for children who are experiencing the pain of a loss. It is also available in Spanish or as an audio option! The FAQ section at the end is also a bonus. 

Helping School-Age Children with Traumatic Grief: Tips for Caregivers. This is an excellent resource on how to respond to children experiencing traumatic grief with straightforward messaging for their caregivers. Messages are listed in a T-chart 1-10 from a child’s perspective followed by a recommended caregiver response.

Supporting Children with Incarcerated Parents

Top Ten Things You Should Know. This article lists the top ten things that many programs, teachers, and youth workers can do to help better service the population of children with incarcerated parents. Project Avary’s program graduates and staff share guidance for adults on this topic.

Tip Sheet for Teachers (Pre-K through 12): Supporting Children Who Have an Incarcerated Parent. This two-page tip sheet details five things to know about children with incarcerated parents and how teachers can contribute to positive outcomes. Bullet points specify how teachers can collaborate, assist, and advocate for their students, including related resources for further reading!

Resources for the Classroom and Home

Coping With Incarceration - Sesame Workshop 8:49. This video clip provides research-based, key strategies to support children coping with incarceration. Sometimes a furry, friendly Muppet’s explanation of a tough topic is just what kids need! 

Recommended Books for and About Children of Incarcerated Parents. Books about children of incarcerated parents act as a resource for parents, caregivers, providers, and policymakers. Making books available in spaces children and families can access conveys support. These books are listed according to the recommended audience age.

Helping Children Families and Communities Cope with Grief. This resource has links to many other resources in both English and Spanish. It includes webinar slides and topics such as pregnant women after a loss, Native American children experiencing grief, and Sesame Street’s The Giggle Game, among other games, including Elmo and Jesse!

Highmark Caring Place. This link has free support for children who have lost a parent. It includes access to support groups, grief meditation trials, partnerships with schools, training for school professionals and many more! Resources are also available in Spanish.

Family Focus

Helping Kids Grieve 2:39. This video highlights how children and grown-ups grieve and what providers can do to help. It explains how a child’s grief comes & goes because they don’t understand the permanence of death as quickly as adults do. It has a video website link that leads you right to grief resources (printables, videos, activities) and other related resources on the Sesame Street website. 

When Someone Your Child Loves Dies. This two-page PDF is about talking with your child when a loved one dies. It includes three tips and feelings & reactions your child may have. It shares suggestions for what to do with the sadness, what comes next, and support for the journey, such as possible worrisome signs. 

When a Loved One Dies: How to Help Your Child. This article is short and easy to read/navigate with an audio option. It includes 11 things parents can do to help a child who has lost a loved one.

Visiting Mom or Dad: The Child’s Perspective. This link provides general information about visits, stress, feelings, distance, and realistic expectations. It includes five charts/ developmental guides broken down by age groups with suggestions & strategies to prepare children for prison visits, specifically for each age group. It also includes 8-9 tips for the first visit!

Incarceration. This 30-second video shares how Alex Copes with a Family Member’s Incarceration. It includes links to family-centered resources for Providers to help families with specific tips to help those impacted by parental incarceration. It consists of a featured read-aloud story, In My Family (shows how a child may feel when a parent misses a special event). Resources are available in Spanish, and there are many resource links for all incarceration resources (so many).

Office Hours

IECMH Consultation helps adults strengthen their relationships with young children and build capacity to respond to children’s social-emotional needs. IECMHC can help reduce caregiver stress and increase caregivers’ reflective practice skills.

IECMH Consultants are available by appointment to provide IECMHC Virtual Office Hours consultation via telephone or video conference. IECMHC Virtual Office Hours is a short-term, collaborative, problem-solving conversation to help you find the next steps for Child Social-Emotional Concerns | Child Behavioral or Developmental Concerns, Emotional Well-being of Teachers and Caregivers | Partnering with Families.

Appointments are held on the first and third Fridays of the month or other days/times by request.  Get more info.

Accessing IECMHC Services

The Pennsylvania Key has streamlined the process for Keystone STARS programs to request Infant Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC). Child care providers can request services by using the Request for Service Form (PDF). Completed forms can be submitted via email to PAIECMH@pakeys.org or faxed to 717-213-3749.

Programs and families can contact the program leadership directly at PAIECMH@pakeys.org with questions or concerns.

Accessing SACCMHC Services

With the generous support of the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), the Pennsylvania Key IECMH Consultation team has expanded to include four mental Health consultants to support School Age Child Care (SACC) programs participating in Keystone STARS.  This service will be primarily tele-consultation support. Click here to request support.  Click here to request support.

Share your feedback! We'd like to hear your thoughts on infant early childhood mental health. Are there resources you'd like to see? Questions you have? Tell us! Send your feedback to PAIECMH@pakeys.org.

Share your feedback! We'd like to hear what you think about infant early childhood mental health.

Are there resources you'd like to see? Questions you have? Tell us! Send your feedback to PAIECMH@pakeys.org.