Consultation Services at Through the Looking Glass
Through the Looking Glass (TLG) provides early childhood mental health consultation and developmental consultation to early care and preschool programs. Consultation services support the social-emotional well-being and developmental progress of young children in early care settings. Consultation provides teachers and administrators of early childcare programs the opportunity to thoughtfully reflect on their practice and programs. Consultants collaborate with teaching staff, administrators, parents, and families to creatively foster an attuned and caring environment that facilitates the wellbeing and growth of the children. Recognizing that clear and harmonious relationships are the foundation of a healthy environment for children, consultants seek to promote and support these relationships.
Currently, TLG provides mental health and developmental consultation services for Early Head Start and Head Start programs of Oakland Head Start and for Saint Vincent’s Day Home, as well as mental health consultation services for Early Head Start and Head Start programs at The Unity Council.
TLG Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation staff is comprised of master’s level clinical social workers and child and family therapists, as well as clinical psychologists. TLG Developmental Consultation staff include master’s level registered occupational therapists and master’s level developmental specialists. If you would like to inquire about consultation services for your program, please contact our Director of Consultation Services.
Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
The Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant (ECMHC) works collaboratively with all staff and with families, helping to facilitate the well-being of all involved to promote the social-emotional well-being of the children. As needed, the ECMHC and developmental consultant work together in trans-disciplinary collaboration, taking into consideration and attending to developmental strengths and challenges of individual children.
TLG has participated in the First Five Alameda County Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Supervisor’s Group to establish an agreed upon definition of mental health consultation and an articulation of its key principles. This definition is widely shared in Alameda County and in many states across the country (adapted from First Five Alameda, RAINE Group, and Georgetown University):
“Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation is an intervention which partners a mental health professional with early childhood professionals to promote the social, emotional and behavioral health of children in Early Childhood Education programs. Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation aims to build capacity of staff, families, programs, and systems to increase the understanding of children’s behaviors in order to prevent, identify, and reduce the impact of mental health and developmental challenges among young children.”
Mental Health Consultants provide three types of services, often concurrently:
- Child-focused consultation – When a specific child’s behavior or overall state is of concern to parents or teachers, the Consultant helps these adults understand, assess, and address the child’s needs by developing an individualized plan with parents and teachers.
- Program-focused consultation – The Consultant collaborates with teachers to improve the care offered to all children in their early care setting by helping to identify attitudes, beliefs, practices, and conditions that may be affecting the quality of all relationships amongst staff, parents, and children.
- System-focused consultation – Directors and other program leaders are supported by the Consultant to reflect upon and evaluate their programs in an ongoing manner, and to fine tune and make changes accordingly in their childcare practices and/or policies to the benefit of all of the children and adults in their setting.
Developmental Consultation
Because of its collaborative transdisciplinary approach, Developmental Consultations offered by TLG are closely aligned to the above articulated principals for mental health consultation. Developmental Consultants recognize that supporting a child’s development can profoundly impact a child’s social-emotional skills and adjustment. They understand that respectfully taking into account and skillfully addressing a child’s unique individual differences may be critical to that child’s overall sense of well-being. Developmental Consultants bring their specific expertise to helping families and staff to support the children’s optimal development. For example, Developmental Consultants may provide support around a child’s sensory processing differences, unique approach to learning, or specific physical or health challenges.
Developmental Consultation might be particularly called for in an early care program if a child has an IEP or IFSP, and is receiving early intervention, school-based, or other therapeutic or behavioral services. Developmental Consultants assist staff and family to understand and adapt service goals to the Early Childhood Education setting to help the child benefit from the educational program and social environment. Developmental Consultation can be helpful in addressing developmental delays, concerns or challenges in language and communication, gross and fine motor skills, cognition, self-help skills, social skills, as well as in addressing behavioral and sensory concerns.
Principals of Consultation
Early Childhood Mental Health and Developmental Consultation at TLG is relationship and strength-based. All Consultation services are collaborative, with attention to desired outcomes. Consultation is family-centered and system-based, attending to all factors and relationships that might influence a child’s environment. Our Consultation model uses an intentional framework that encourages reflective practice by supporting open dialogue and curiosity, and assures appropriate support for the complex work of consultation through reflective supervision, peer support, and ongoing professional training.
In particular consultation is:
“Socially, Culturally, and Linguistically Responsive: In order to establish collaborative relationships that are critical to the success of ECMHC, consultants must explore and form an understanding of the consultee’s culture, language, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and be willing to think with the consultee about how these cultural components impact their relationships with other ECE staff, families and the consultant. Consultants must reflect on how their own culture impacts their approach to ECMHC service delivery with particular awareness of racial, social and economic disparities that affect our communities.” (First Five Alameda County MHCS)
Early Childhood Consultation as a Collaborative Process
Consultation can be of greatest benefit when seen for what it is, as a collaborative process—i.e. when, as educators and consultants, we see ourselves as reflecting together, thinking together, strategizing together, and working together on behalf of the children and families we serve; and when, in this spirit, the consultant is included as part of a program’s team. At the same time, by standing somewhat outside of the system in which they consult, consultants can offer valuable support and perspective in providing “another set of eyes”, enhancing the reflective process and the ongoing fine tuning of our programs for young children and their families.