FCS 3300 - Introduction To Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health I

The first course in a two-course series that provides an in-depth examination of typical and atypical infant and early childhood development through a culturally-relevant, relationship-focused lens. This course will allow students to uncover developmentally-relevant risk factors, and learn more about how early life stress and trauma can impact biopsychosocial development in infancy and early childhood. Specifically, we will review the impacts of parental psychopathology, early life stress effects on the infant brain, and physiological, emotional, and cognitive development. Students will be able to articulate how early life stress and exposure to parental psychopathology “get under the skin” to affect behavioral and mental health outcomes.