American Orthopsychiatric Association Task Force on Head Start and Mental Health. Strengthening Mental Health in Head Start: Pathways to Quality Improvement. Report of the Task Force on Head Start and Mental Health. New York: American Orthopsychiatric Association, 1994.

American Orthopsychiatric Association. Lessons From the Field: Head Start Mental Health Strategies to Meet Changing Needs. New York: American Orthopsychiatric Association, in press.

These reports highlight 12 Head Start programs and the range of strategies they use to promote emotional well-being among children, families and staff, and to provide specific interventions.

This book is a "map of behavioral and emotional development" for the infant and toddler years. The book is arranged chronologically by child age but also includes chapters on common areas of concern including discipline, loss and grief, toilet training, temperament, and many others.

This is a workbook for parents by the researchers who developed the concept of "goodness-of-fit between a child's temperament and environment."

This is a workbook that describes characteristics of healthy families and offers activities to build those skills and characteristics.

This practical parenting book is about acquiring skills in effective communication with children. Special attention is given to helping adults .listen to children's feelings in a supportive, understanding way without judging the feeling or offering to "fix" the situation. This can be used as a organizing curriculum for a parent education group.

Jorde-Bloorn, P. "Teachers Need TLC Too." Young Children 43, no. 6 (September 1988): 4-8.

A Great Place to Work: Improving Conditions for Staff in Young Children 's Programs. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1988.

These manuals offer strategies on how to improve the child care center environment (which also applies well to Head Start) for the benefit of staff, parents, and children. They identify the qualities of an organizational climate that support positive professional attitudes and shared decision making.

This is a practical guide for program directors on how to develop a sense of responsibility for quality improvements (including staff morale) that is shared collectively by staff. Includes tools to assess the needs of the center as a whole as well as needs of individual staff including a process for designing an individualized model of staff development.

This book for parents is about understanding their child's temperament and structuring daily routines and activities to "fit" so that everyone experiences less conflict. A particular strength of this book is encouraging parents to see the strengths and positive attributes in their "spirited" (often referred to as difficult) child.

This guide for infant and toddler caregivers offers practical guidelines and suggestions that focus on the caregiver becoming sensitive to the individual traits and needs of infants and toddlers, and creating emotionally nurturing relationships with them.

Overcoming the Odds: High Risk Children from Birth to Adulthood. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.

Emmy Werner has done some of the best resiliency research in the literature. This book looks at outcomes for the cohort that she has followed from birth at age 30: She and Smith describe a common core of individual differences and sources of support that buffer responses to constitutional risk factors and/or stressful life events.

Mengel, Patrica N. "Mental Health in Migrant Head Start." Arlington, VA: East Coast Migrant Head Start Project.

An overview of mental health and family support issues for migrant Head Start families. Includes videotapes in both English and Spanish, training manual, and workshop outline.

This guide, written primarily for the mental health coordinator in a Head Start Program, assists in the development of a program's mental health plan.

As I Am is a resource book for early childhood education programs. The book describes experiences and activities for children that promote self esteem and mental health. Instructions for each experience include the benefits of participation, what the adult needs to do to prepare, and how to facilitate the experience. Many of the activities include guidelines for parents offering ideas to extend the learning from preschool to home.

A skill-based training program for staff in the education component. There are practical strategies for working with children in multi-stressed environments. The program has been organized into an eight session training program which ends with staff providing ongoing peer support for one another.

The American Orthopsychiatric Association
330 Seventh Avenue
New York, New York 10001
(212) 564-5930

Families and Work Institute
330 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001
(212) 465-2044

National Center for Clinical Infant Programs/ZERO TO THREE
2000 14th Street #38C
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 528-4300

National Mental Health Association
1021 Prince Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-2971
(703) 684-7722.

National Center for Children in Poverty
154 Haven Ave
New York, New York 10032
(212) 927-8793

Videos

Mental Health in Head Start: It's Everybody's Business. VHS videotape and discussion guide. Also available in Spanish. Available through the Head Start Publications Center, P.O. Box 26417, Alexandria, VA 22313-0417. Fax order request to: (703) 683-5769.

Mental Health in Head Start: A Partner for Families. VHS videotape and discussion guide. Available through the Head Start Publications Center, P.O. Box 26417, Alexandria, VA 223 13-0417. Fax order request to: (703) 683-5769.