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From Trauma to Trust: Supporting Children and Families Impacted by Substance Exposure, Foster Care, and Attachment Disruptions  image

From Trauma to Trust: Supporting Children and Families Impacted by Substance Exposure, Foster Care, and Attachment Disruptions

E17 · Meaningful Moments - Connecting IMH to EI
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55 Plays26 days ago

Infants impacted by prenatal substance exposure, foster care, and child welfare involvement often face significant challenges during their earliest years. In this episode of Meaningful Moments, Lisa Terry sits down with Amanda Howard to discuss the impact of trauma and attachment disruptions on infant development and the critical role early intervention professionals play in supporting children and families. Through research, real-life experiences, and practical strategies, this conversation highlights how relationship-based, trauma-informed practices can foster resilience and promote healing for both children and caregivers.


Resources:

Checklist of Early Childhood Practices that Support Social Emotional Development and Trauma-Informed Care
This reflective checklist supports early interventionists in applying trauma-informed practices that promote social-emotional development. It emphasizes safety, regulation, caregiver partnership, and understanding behavior through a trauma- and development-informed lens. https://veipd.vcu.edu/media/veipd/pdfsarchives/trauma_checklist.pdf

Action Plan: Strengthening Trauma-Informed Practice in Early Intervention
This companion action plan helps early interventionists translate reflection into intentional action. Designed to be used alongside the trauma-informed checklist, it supports goal-setting, collaboration, and ongoing reflection to strengthen everyday practice.  https://veipd.vcu.edu/media/veipd/pdfsarchives/trauma_action_plan.pdf

Visit the Virginia Early Intervention Professional Development Center for FREE resources, training, and handouts. https://veipd.org/main/index.html  

Virginia Association of Infant Mental Health: https://www.vaimh.org/ 

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Transcript

Introduction: Meaningful Moments Podcast

00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Meaningful Moments, connecting infant mental health to early intervention. We explore a lot of different topics that strengthen relationships here, support healthy development, and enhance early intervention practice. This podcast is a collaborative effort from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services through a contract with the Partnership for People with Disabilities at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Meet Lisa Terry: Early Intervention Consultant

00:00:37
Speaker
My name is Lisa Terry. I am an Early Intervention Professional Development Consultant with Virginia's Early Intervention Professional Development Center at Virginia Commonwealth University's Partnership for People with Disabilities. It's always a mouthful. But I'm also endorsed as an infant mental health mentor and research and faculty. And I lead the Division of Early Childhoods Infant Mental Health Community Practice, which is free for anybody to ever join. I also go into the homes and I still provide direct services to families.
00:01:08
Speaker
And I am so excited for today.

Understanding Trauma, Attachment, and Resilience

00:01:11
Speaker
We're discussing a topic that is both complex and incredibly important, the intersection of trauma and attachment and prenatal substance exposure and foster care. And many infants and toddlers involved with the child welfare system have experienced a lot of significant adversity early in life, right? So what does that mean? but they also have that tremendous capacity for healing when they are supported by those nurturing relationships and that responsive caregiving. So joining me today is Amanda Howard, who brings extensive experience working with infants and families impacted by substance exposure, child protective services involvement, and foster care. And together we're going to kind of explore those
00:01:59
Speaker
how those early experiences affect development, what early intervention professionals can um really do and understand about attachment and trauma, and even how service coordinators play a meaningful role in supporting resilience and those positive outcomes for children and families. So Amanda, thank you for joining us today.

Amanda Howard's Journey into Infant Mental Health

00:02:20
Speaker
Why don't you go ahead and start us off by just telling us a little bit more about you?
00:02:24
Speaker
Well, thank you for having me, Lisa. um My name is Amanda Howard. I am a service coordinator for the Virginia Beach Early Intervention Program. I have been a service coordinator for 20 years. So it's been a long time. i have a lot of experience working with these kids. And then in the last 10 years or so, more experience with children in the foster care system or who have CPS involvement.
00:02:52
Speaker
Thanks, Amanda. So I'm curious, you know, tell me a little bit more about what drew you to this topic, because I know like this is something that you were really passionate about. Like you're one of the first people that's like, give me those, you know, cases or those files or those kids, those families, you know, to serve.
00:03:10
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know, it's I think it keeps things interesting because there are so many different situations and backgrounds with these kids. But um so I had been working with children who had CPS involvement. And in 2021, my sister passed away from fentanyl overdose. So I lost my sister. Her four kids lost their mom. And you know part of my grieving process was thinking about what could I have done differently? What could any of us have done differently? How are her kids so awesome? um
00:03:51
Speaker
And it just really led me into kind of seeking out more learning experiences about things like infant mental health, trauma, attachment, and then really the neonatal abstinence syndrome, kind of learning about what that looks like for these kids, short-term, long-term, their hospital stays. um So it really kind of helped me to focus my grief somewhere and gave me the opportunity to really change people's lives and help them. um And I just kind of thought like, this is this is a good way that I can honor my sister and her children is by taking my passion for working with these kids and, you know, providing services to all the kids in Virginia beach who need it.
00:04:43
Speaker
Gosh, I'm so sorry.

Impact of Substance Use Disorder and Generational Trauma

00:04:44
Speaker
That is so hard, but how, you know, strong and resilient are you too and taking and really, you know, looking at that grief and funneling it into something that can be positive for all these families and helping to serve, you know,
00:05:00
Speaker
And let's be honest, it's a population I think that sometimes people don't always want to serve, right? Yes. Yeah. And, you know, i think we're to a place now where almost everyone has been impacted by, you know, substance use disorder. And so we're all kind of have some familiarity. yeah.
00:05:22
Speaker
but yeah Yeah, and you know the biggest thing too is that so many of these families that are involved with child protective services, they're carrying just generations of trauma. So I wanna get into some of the stats about foster care in Virginia, because I think it's really important to understand that and how many of these families are being impacted. So tell me a little bit more about the stats in foster there's some really um good websites that talk about You know, fosterva.org has kind of some recent data. Their count as of March 2026 shows there were 5,806 children in foster care in Virginia. um
00:06:07
Speaker
About 1,700 of those kids are waiting to be adopted. and Another thing is they average the length of foster care stay as 85 weeks, which um you know i didn't I didn't realize that it was typically that long for these kids. um so And then if you want, the Virginia Department of Social Services website has like a huge breakdown of all of these numbers and kind of you know separates socioeconomic status, race, you know gender. age And what we know is that you know the top three reasons that children enter foster care are neglect, which is about half of them, um parental substance use or abuse, which is 31%, then physical abuse is
00:07:01
Speaker
five percent um And we know that most of these kids are under the age of three. So we know that infants and toddlers, they're kind of our most vulnerable population and you know kind of the highest percentage of children that we see enter are into care.

Challenges Faced by Infants in Foster Care

00:07:20
Speaker
So you kind of think about their young age and their inability to communicate and just this length of time that they're in care is, that's traumatic. Yeah, that's huge. I just can't even get over like even just like the number, you know, i mean, that's almost like 6,000 kids that are in foster care. And how many of them, that's like a quarter of them that are waiting to be adopted. So that's a huge change and an impact. I'm curious, like, what is your caseload kind of like look like?
00:07:52
Speaker
And how does that break down the numbers? So right now i have 41 kids on my caseload. 13 of these babies have CPS involvement um for one reason or another, but five of them are babies that have a neonatal abstinence syndrome or opiate withdrawal syndrome diagnosis. So.
00:08:17
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. That's a lot of kids for just 41 kids on your caseload, right? yeah Yeah. And, you know, over the last year, there there are other service coordinators that work with these children in foster care. But um the past year was 25 referrals. So, you know, ah ah about two months that I'm seeing coming into the program.
00:08:40
Speaker
um And then in that last year of those 25 kids, 10 of them were substance exposed. So it's a pretty, pretty high percentage. And I'm so glad that they're getting referred to early intervention services because I think we talk a lot about like social emotional development and just the wellbeing of that child, right? And even going through these significant changes, it's huge, right? If you think about taking a child, even from birth, right? There's a huge role that attachment already plays right then and there in those moments.
00:09:18
Speaker
Or, you know, I think about the children, like I've had some kids that go to many different foster homes. And so they have different foster placements. And you think about what can that do to their attachment or how does trauma play a role, you know? So what do you think about that? Like, how do you feel like um you know, attachment and trauma play a huge role in the care that these children are receiving? Or or what do you wish that more early intervention professionals kind of understood yeah about families and the impact of even substance use disorder? yeah
00:09:56
Speaker
Well, I think one of the big eye openers for me was I did a training through the Virgin to Virginia Infant Mental Health website. They have tons of good free trainings. But there was a training about attachment and foster care. And one of the things that I learned was that a you know attachment starts before you're born. So you know a baby that's born and then removed and placed into care immediately is a broken attachment. So you know you have that. attach And then for these substance exposed babies. so you have that social ah attachment that's broken, and then you have all of these health issues. So, you know, they're in, they have their little nervous systems are a mess, their GI systems. We see, you know, stiff muscles, tremors, um lots of, runny bowel movements, crying, feeding difficulties. um
00:10:58
Speaker
you know So you have a little little tiny little baby that's had all this physical trauma and then also has been removed from their parents. you're just kind of doubling down on that immediate, I don't know, it's just,
00:11:17
Speaker
Yeah. Well, even like the crying, you know, I think like that's really hard because if you are even caring for a child, if you're a foster parent that's caring for a child that you receive, and then they are consistently crying, like that's really hard internally to deal with, like emotionally for that caregiver. Right. Yes. And if you've heard, yeah I'm sure you've heard that, um that cry it's,
00:11:43
Speaker
really high pitched, really intense, and it happens quickly. Like they might, you might hear a little, and then it's, you know, this, this really intense cry. and I can't imagine spending all day with a baby that is that difficult to console. And you have these foster parents that have stepped up to say, I'm going to give this child a loving place. And They also need support because, you know, they don't usually have all the tools that they need or the knowledge, you know, bringing this child into their home, how to help them really thrive.
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, because I think as a foster parent, if that was happening with me, I would be like, why doesn't this baby like me? Why is this baby always crying every time I pick it up? Like, is it something I'm doing, you know, personally? Because I just... wouldn't know as much information about you know how that substance use really impacts their development.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yes, exactly. And you know I have i work with a child worked with a child who didn't come into early intervention until they were almost three. And there were some delays, but really it was this kind of inattention and really quickly getting frustrated that was atypical. And the grandparents had asked, like, do you think that, you know, this speech delay is because of the substance exposure? It's like, it's hard to tell, but I will say that I think that this, you know, being quick to frustrate this um quick to move on from task to task, I would guess that probably is.
00:13:27
Speaker
But, you know, it's hard to tease out for a two year old. It is. And it's so hard, too, because I know I've had a lot of families that kind of like ask me, they're like, well, what is their future outcomes going to look like? And we can't predict that, right? We just we don't know. i mean, it's going to look the same you know as when you're raising a child of your own. You just don't know what's going to happen in the future or you know, the outcome. What we do know is that all of their these early experiences make a huge impact to making children a lot more resilient, right? Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Role of Service Coordinators and Addressing Stigma

00:14:06
Speaker
And I think when we kind of think of trauma in infancy, it's just important to remember that you know these babies, they don't have words to use for their experiences, right? So their their little bodies are kind of telling us the story through their sleep patterns and their feeding and those challenges that they're having around that or their regulation difficulties, right?
00:14:28
Speaker
And even their ability to trust caregivers. Yes. Yeah. And there's a model. I mean, we we all kind of know about the the skills that they use in the hospital to assess neonatal abstinence syndrome, but there's one. It's the eat eat sleep console. And I think most hospitals are moving to that. And I think it's a really it's a it's a good way for everybody to kind of wrap their mind around how these babies are how they're doing, you know, are they are they eating okay? are they Do they have um coordination when they're taking their bottle? Are they able to finish a bottle in a reasonable amount of time? um Are they sleeping?
00:15:14
Speaker
Can you console them? You know, like, ah so those are kind of three things that you can talk to parents about. Like, okay, these are, you know, the ways in which newborns, we kind of see these effects. um Yeah. And I think, you know, finding, I love that model because I think finding out more about sleep and feeding is huge for all children. i think we always want to know what are the changes that are occurring, right? What's happening because it's a huge impact on their behaviors. And that's what we do know, right? Right. And I think for early intervention too, we're so like routine based. That's like, okay, you know, instead of these, like the Finnegan scores, okay, we have something that I, I understand that a parent can understand. So, um, I think that that, that assessment's a little bit more helpful to me personally.
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah. So what are some things that you would say to kind of keep in mind when working with these children and families? Um, yeah. So,
00:16:19
Speaker
I think the the very first thing is we don't typically get a lot of experience with the parents. um Usually, you know, these kids are in foster care and it's typically the foster parent that we're dealing with. But, um you know, keeping in mind that addictions is it's a disease of the brain. Like this is not you're not a bad person. You didn't. These parents did not choose this life for themself or their child. So I kind of think just keeping that in the back of your mind is the first most important thing, right? um And we can't repair the things that happened to those kids. Those you know those traumatic experiences are there, but you know we can help them to build resilience, help their foster parents, their parents become more resilient, um which is how you adapt to change. And when traumatic things happen, you know you have tools that you can use.
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah. And you know I think you bring up such a good point because there is this huge stigma on substance use disorder, right? Where I think a lot of people are so quick to look at the bio parents a lot differently. you know but it's...
00:17:42
Speaker
The ones that I've worked with, they've always said, like, you know, like, I want to overcome this and, you know, i want to do better for my kids, but they are just struggling to really even get the help. And we know sometimes the system is broken and they want to be better, you know? And I think the more that we can, you know, involve them and help them and educate them about even development, especially if there's reunification, yeah that's going to happen. I think that's so important, right? Versus only just working with the foster parent and not involving the bio parents if they still have a role that they're playing.
00:18:21
Speaker
Absolutely. i i work with ive worked with one child who came into early intervention due to substance exposure and that child ended up having and another toxic exposure when they were, i don't know, seven, nine months um and was removed and put into care. That child ended up being... The grandfather was given guardianship. And a couple years later, I received a referral for another baby with the same last name. And when I looked at it, i was like, oh, it is a sibling. And it was a substance exposed baby. And I think at that point, it's easy to like make assumptions like, oh,
00:19:06
Speaker
this mom is still using. and But what you know is not on that little blurb on the referral is that the baby was substance exposed to methadone because mom has been in treatment. And so during her pregnancy, she was receiving um her medication. And you know when the baby was born, yes, substance exposed.
00:19:27
Speaker
um But it was a totally different, right? Because mom was working working her treatment program The baby entered. foster care and the foster parent formed a really nice relationship with that parent and then was able to loop me in. So I knew her from before. She remembered me a little bit, but um being able to kind of team with her, with the foster parent and then getting ready for reunification, it's like, okay, I'm just going to slide right in there with this baby. You know, you can call me. um That is the only time that that's happened. And it's honestly,
00:20:05
Speaker
the dream. um But yeah, I think not judging these parents because you don't have a full understanding of what was happening, what you know what kind of trauma they've been trying to parent through. yeah, so just keeping your your opinions out of it is important. Yeah. I think that's so huge because we do need to avoid those assumptions about caregivers, like motivations or their commitment, you know? And I think about the parents sometimes that miss visitation, like they missed another visitation appointment. Like how can we reframe that? Right. So thinking, well, what barriers might be making participation difficult for them? Right. And even like solely, instead of like solely like
00:20:51
Speaker
thinking about those developmental concerns, really acknowledging those caregivers' strengths and their efforts and their attempts, and because they do care and they do love their child at the end of the day. So thanks for bringing that point up. I just think it's really huge. And another thing, you know, too,
00:21:11
Speaker
I think it's really important to also make sure that we're building trust yeah before we're expecting that engagement because trust is so important and crucial because like you said, too, we don't know what experiences that they have carried with them and we have to build

Building Trust Through Trauma-Informed Care

00:21:29
Speaker
that rapport. So they also trust us and they're open to us and they know that you know we are here to help empower you, too. Yes. And we know, you know, like part of trauma informed care is active listening and responsive listening. And that doesn't mean that you agree with everything somebody is saying, but that you are listening to them and trying to understand, you know, where they're coming from. So just doing that, being a listener without judgment is something really huge you can do for these parents.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I think a lot of times too, what I find myself, especially when I'm working with a foster parent who may not always know like the background information or what's going on, is to make sure that I'm asking meaningful questions that are digging a little bit deeper, right? And not just making information. any kind of like developmental assumptions. like For example, like I had a family and the child had difficulties with feeding. He was overstuffing his mouth. And so, sometimes we would just kind of like jump to, like there's a lot of sensory issues there. But after digging deeper with that family, They realized that the first nine months during that child's life when they were kind of back and forth between their house and then the um bio mom's house, that bio mom would bring him back with a full can of formula still. So he really wasn't getting his needs met. He wasn't eating. And so a lot of that trauma from feeding really contributed to the issues that he was having.
00:23:12
Speaker
But it gives them a better understanding of where he's coming from. i feel like it offers a lot more patience that they then have to help support that child. Right?
00:23:23
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, exactly. So let's switch gears a little bit and let's talk about the important role that service coordinators play. So what kind of considerations would you say service coordinators should kind of keep in mind?
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah. So the first thing I want to say is there is a lot of really great training available. So, you know, if you're interested in something, there. free trainings all over, right? So that you can kind of build your skill set. But, um you know, service coordinators are in a great position to be able to provide resources to these families, right? So when we talk about, okay, digging deeper and asking those questions of families, you can get information like, oh you know,
00:24:13
Speaker
um they transportation is an issue or you know we are looking for social experience. So service coordinators can help to link these families and building that strong community is part of building resilience, right? Like, you know where you can go if you need assistance with housing, with transportation, with or just a question like, who would I call about this? And So I think it's a really we can help families problem solve through some of these challenges and you know figuring out how teaching families, coaching them and how to um work through some of these challenges is a way that we are building resilience for them and for these babies. And the CDC did a study and they said that, you know, the greatest protective factors um against trauma are safe, stable and nurturing relationships and environments. Right. So we can coach these parents like, oh, I I see when he cried, you did this. That was amazing. That was great. Look at that. look you know so when we're coaching their responses and giving them the confidence that they need, um that is a huge part of building resilience and helping these children kind of work through the trauma that they've had.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean I think it's so important to make sure that we are always promoting those responsive and nurturing relationships, right? I think it's huge for all children, but especially these children who have, you know, already had a lot of early adversity experiences. And service coordinators play such a huge role in connecting them to those resources or you know giving them that support that they need or making sure that they have all of the information that they need to make a good decision right for their families. And service coordinators are really the ones that are the most consistent with the child throughout the you know first three years of their life if they follow them through transition. And so they're able to establish that relationship because you want families to be open and honest with you about
00:26:39
Speaker
what are the barriers or the challenges that they're facing, right? And it's not just the foster parents, it's, you know, the supporting the birth families or, you know, having that relationship with the social workers too. So that way everybody is on the same page, especially when we're supporting reunification, right? Because that's always the goal.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yes. you know, I think checking in with these parents about like, how are you doing? Like, You know you don't need to straight up ask them, how's your mental health?

Supporting Caregivers' Well-being and Mental Health

00:27:11
Speaker
But you know we want to encourage all of these parents to be taking care of themselves, to have time to themselves, to you know talk to somebody if they need it And so I think being able to be a source of encouragement for them. And sometimes it's just listening you know about what difficult what is what is difficult and That's huge for these parents, you know, and to show that you you care deeply about this baby, but also about them because they're doing the hard work and you can't, you know, you got to put your own or you got to put your own oxygen mask on first, right? So I think that's that's an important piece too, is checking in with the caregivers.
00:27:58
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, they know whether or not you like genuinely care or not, or you're just there. mo on the floor. you're just Checking the box, completing the paperwork. I think when you show a genuine investment in families, the whole family, i think that's the biggest piece is that it's not just that child, it's the whole family. that does include, right? The birth parents. So,
00:28:24
Speaker
you know trying to get them included whenever that's appropriate or permitted, you know and really reinforcing the importance of you know their role that they play in their child's life. Or even for the foster parents, trying to normalize those trauma-related responses. I feel like every time i pick up a child that's in foster care,
00:28:48
Speaker
I am always talking about trauma. I'm always talking about the impact of trauma because my goal with that foster family is to always talk about what is trauma-informed care because it's really important that they also kind of implement that when they're working to support that child.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yes, exactly. And that's why you know service coordinators need that education because it's important to be able to tell families like, okay, this is these are some things you can expect, or you know this is what I know and we can figure out more as we go along, but you know there are a lot of questions. Is this normal?
00:29:25
Speaker
you know What can I expect? um We can't always give like a firm answer on that, but to just have you know knowledge of this is what the research says. um is helpful. you know And it's sometimes just saying, we don't really know, like, okay you know we don't know.
00:29:45
Speaker
Yeah, so and that's the truth of it, right, too. And I know sometimes with these the substance exposure, sometimes a lot of the other symptoms might not show until they're toddlers and you start to see a lot more behaviors, which is really the same for trauma. Like you might start to notice that come up a little bit later once they're, you know, around that toddler age And then they'll be like, well, I don't understand what happened. Right. But the most important thing that anyone can do is make a child feel loved, offer that safety, that predictability, because they've had a lot of chaos, right, in their life. And that predictability of the structure and the routines really offers them some safety of knowing what to expect, right? Knowing that their physical and their emotional needs are going to get met. Exactly.
00:30:35
Speaker
Exactly. And I think a a big shift too that I would encourage everyone to do is you know to kind of view it from, you know like what would change if we kind of viewed every challenging behavior, which I even hate saying challenging behavior, but really any kind of behavior that we're trying to understand through the lens of you know what happened to this child rather than what's wrong with this child. right So really trying to kind of be like an investigator, or a detective and figuring out a little bit more about their experiences and that impact of their lived experiences on them and their behaviors, or even the caregivers lived experiences and the impact on the behaviors that you're seeing.
00:31:24
Speaker
Yes, exactly. and And that was another quote is, you know, parents are parenting through their own trauma. So, you know, we you have to look at a really big picture to kind of tease out like what what is this? Is this trauma? Is this genetics? Is this, you know,
00:31:46
Speaker
Is this just a two-year-old? yeah yeah Just a typical two-year-old. Yeah. And someone's like, well, he's two, so some of this is normal.
00:31:59
Speaker
They don't call it the terrible twos for nothing, right? Exactly. But you're right. You know, a lot of the the babies like this, early infancy is really hard because, you know, they're just trying to... They need to eat. They need to sleep.
00:32:13
Speaker
And, you know... So we're working. Okay. We've worked through this, like we're on a good schedule. And then you're right. You see, again, toddler years, we see some of these behaviors. And this is why I tell parents, like, it's important to have early intervention all the way up till year three, because right now things look

Encouragement for Early Intervention and Resilience

00:32:32
Speaker
fine and great. And I'm so excited and hopefully that this it will continue. But just in case I'm here, you know, and I'll be checking in with you and you know, kind of having the questions that I know to ask to say, okay, do we need to do we need to go deeper here? Yeah. And how lucky are all those families to have you alongside their journey with them?
00:32:56
Speaker
So as we wrap up today, what's one key takeaway that you would want to leave the listeners with today? ah I would just like people to know that really small things can make a huge impact on these children and on these families, you know, just linking a parent with a resource or giving them a compliment when they're parenting, when they're doing really great responsive parenting, um, just noticing those things. those are the big things that you can do for families and they're not that hard. Um, you know, if you want to put a little more effort in the trainings, like, you know, i think we need more trauma informed practitioners and, um, the knowledge is out there, but, um,
00:33:48
Speaker
Just small things, being there, knowing, letting a family know that you care and you're there for them. That's the biggest thing that you can do. Yeah. And I will link to, cause we have the new trauma informed checklist on our website. So I'll make sure i link that into the resources. Cause I think that's a good point that everyone really should be providing trauma informed care to um the families that we are serving. And so making sure that we're leading with that.
00:34:20
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, we've done a lot of like the ACEs training. So we know about those ACEs scores and these numbers and, i I wish that they would also include like this. That number does not define your future. you know what I mean? And there are things that we can do as a community, as friends, as service coordinators, um you know, to help these families um become more resilient.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, we are all in this together, right? And we all play a role in providing these services to families. And I think, you know, like research really does always remind us that these safe, stable, nurturing relationships are among the strongest protective factors in a child's life. So every...
00:35:06
Speaker
interaction, those small moments, right? It's an opportunity to strengthen those relationships and support resilience because resilience is so important for both children and the adults that are caring for them.
00:35:20
Speaker
Yes. Any last thoughts or words before we wrap up? No, I'm just grateful that you had me today to talk a little bit about my kind of passion project and Hopefully it'll inspire some others to do some more learning.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yes. Thank you so much for joining us. And that is all for today's episode of Meaningful Moments, connecting infant mental health to early intervention. Thank you for listening. And thank you, Amanda, for just sharing your expertise with us. Join us next time as we continue to dig into infant mental health. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Spotify.
00:36:04
Speaker
For more information, visit Virginia Early Intervention Professional Development's website for resources, tools, and archived webinars. You can also visit Virginia's Association of Infant Mental Health for additional resources. I will make sure to link all the resources in the description. Thank you so much, and thanks, Amanda.
00:36:23
Speaker
Thank you.