Let’s Grow Together is an organisation rooted in area-based prevention, promotion, and early intervention. The programmes, approaches, and services are designed to support everyone important in children’s lives, to empower them to support all children to have happy, healthy, thriving lives. This includes parents, caregivers, families, communities, services, systems, and polices. A particular focus of the organisation is to promote, build, and strengthen strong, lasting relationships and environments that have a protective, enhancing effect on children’s development, reducing negative and long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences.
Prevention is the act of providing protective support to families and communities to stop issues or problems from starting or to stop them from getting worse. Promotion is enabling families to support their child’s lifelong health and wellbeing, through universal, population and targeted services. Early intervention means providing support and help as early as possible when an issue or concern starts. Stopping issues from starting or helping them as soon as possible if they do start leads to better outcomes for children and families.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) recognises that prevention and early intervention strategies and programmes have the potential to positively affect young children’s well-being and future prospects. Established international research shows the long-term benefits throughout a child’s life of supportive prevention and early intervention services and programmes. This includes the reduction of a variety of health and social difficulties later in life (*The Impact of Early Childhood on Future Heath, 2017).
www.pein.ie/prevention-and-early-intervention-in-child-health-services
www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child
*The Impact of Early Childhood on Future Health, Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, May 2017
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) is “the developing capacity of the infant/young child to form close and secure relationships; experience, manage, and express a full range of emotions; and explore the environment and learn – all in the context of family, community, and culture,” (*Zero to Three, 2024).
All our work, programmes, and activities are guided by the principles and practice of IECMH. We work with everyone important in a child’s life, ensuring every child is able to form close and secure relationships. Key building blocks to supporting a secure parent/caregiver-child relationship include: attunement; serve and return; and rupture and repair.
Having an initial strong relationship and a secure attachment with a parent or caregiver is important for laying the foundation of a young child’s development. It is important for: developing a sense of self and of others; developing the capacity to learn, play, and understand the world; being able to form other relationships in the future; and developing the ability to regulate and manage thoughts, emotions, feelings, and stress.
* www.zerotothree.org/issue-areas/infant-and-early-childhood-mental-health
Attunement
The ability of caregivers to be aware of and respond positively to a child’s needs, which can be communicated using verbal or non-verbal signals or cues such as eye contact, facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, and touch. It involves a parent or caregiver “tuning in” to their child, and responding appropriately.
Serve & Return
Like a game of tennis, a baby serves by reaching out for an interaction (by babbling, making eye contact, or touch), and their caregiver returns and acknowledges by responding positively within the interaction and connection (talking back, smiling, or touching). We strive for predictable, consistent and regular returns to support children’s optimal brain development.
Rupture & Repair
Ruptures, breaks, or negative interactions in a relationship happen to everyone, but how an adult responds is most important. Repairing the relationship, by acknowledging what happened or what went wrong, is key to restoring trust and security in the relationship.
