FIELDING'S NEW MASTER OF ARTS IN INFANT, CHILD, AND FAMILY MENTAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Mental health awareness and solutions are at the forefront of today’s society. The Infant Mental Health (IMH) Crisis impacts children from birth to eight years old, their families, and their communities.

With that in mind, 2023 marks the first time Fielding offered its Master of Arts in Infant, Child, and Family Mental Health and Development.

This innovative degree is designed to support clinicallybased, as well as education-based, professionals to better understand and work with social, emotional, and developmental demands and needs of families. It provides both theory and practice for today’s scholar-practitioner across a myriad of disciplines, including: mental health, early intervention, early childhood education, medical health (nurses, nurse practitioners, and physicians), and allied health professions (occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech language pathologists).

"There really is a crisis in the country for professionals who are working with all these populations,” said Nina Newman, PhD, Infant and Early Childhood Development faculty. “The pandemic escalated these problems, but it certainly didn't create all the issues that were on the rise in early childhood. There are certain behavioral issues, especially expulsion rates, in early childhood settings. Children in preschool and early education are likely to be expelled at 3.6 times the rate of those from K-12 combined. Educators don’t necessarily have the tools they need to work with the families and the children that they're encountering. So, this degree is driven out of that need.”