Early Intervention Support for Parents with Babies and Young Children in the State Capital, Potsdam
Problems arising during the developmental phase of early childhood experience and behaviour (approximately 0–3 years) have distinctive characteristics. In particular, it is not yet possible to draw a clear distinction between individual areas of behaviour and functioning. Added to this is the infant’s immense dependence on their carers. The British paediatrician and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott puts it this way: “There is no such thing as a baby” (1965, p. 38). Consequently, the major challenge in counselling work with infants and young children and their families lies in considering physical, psychological and aspects rooted in the parent–child relationship as a whole.
- Karsten Krauskopf (Projektleiter/-in)
This also means that, in order to address early childhood disorders – which often affect the regulation of eating, sleeping and crying – the child’s early interactions with their parents must be examined more closely. The same applies to issues associated with relationship-related mental health crises experienced by the child’s primary caregivers, such as postnatal depression.
Funded by the City of Potsdam, the team at the project site at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (Counselling Centre for Infants and Toddlers), where the early intervention counselling service is implemented in practice in collaboration with the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) and the Evangelisches Jugend- und Fürsorgewerk (EJF). The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam’s long-standing professional expertise in the field of early childhood education and the support of families during the early years is being firmly embedded in this transfer project within the City of Potsdam’s Early Intervention Network.
In parallel with the counselling practice – which is based on the high level of professional expertise of those involved and takes the form of ‘research-inspired practice’ – the project management team is establishing systematic accompanying research in the spirit of ‘practice-inspired research’. Through the involvement of students on the degree programmes in Social Work, Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Education Research – through seminars, research placements and final-year dissertations – the project is establishing long-term impact and effectiveness research in the field of parent-infant-toddler counselling at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
Further information on the counselling services can be found here.