Linking Sensory Integration and Mental Health

Because so many people have vital roles to play in helping infants and young children with sensory processing difficulties interact with their environments and the significant people and relationships in them, authors, Susan A. Stallings-Sahler and Gilbert M. Foley, have written this book for a broad multidisciplinary audience of service providers, researchers, and policymakers serving infants, young children, and their families.

Highlighting the intersection of sensory processing, sensory processing disorders, and infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH), the book is targeted to a wide array of disciplines from the therapeutic, educational, medical, and psychosocial fields. Practitioners who work in a variety of settings will find it meaningful – neonatal intensive care follow-up programs, early intervention programs, preschools, developmental and mental health clinics, IECMH programs, child life programs, social service agencies, and child care centres.

Parents and family members may also find the contents helpful in understanding and caring for their child with sensory, self-regulatory, and social–emotional challenges in ways that will also enhance their relationships and family life.This book is designed to help readers achieve the following goals:

• Understand the sensory development of infants and young children as well as how the tapestry of sensory processing, self-regulation, and social–emotional capacities become interwoven as development and the child's personality emerge.
• Understand and appreciate how sensory processing and self-regulation are intimately linked and contribute to social–emotional development and the broader construct of IECMH and psychopathology.
• Explore the fundamental neurodevelopmental and neurophysiological underpinnings of sensory processing and its influence on attention, movement, self-regulation, attachment, and IECMH as well as areas where dysfunction may occur.
• Learn about assessment and intervention approaches designed to promote young children's self-regulation, adaptive behaviour, social–emotional development, and mental health through enriching interactions and goodness-of-fit with the physical, relational, and social world.
• Become aware of new scientific evidence, directions, and outstanding questions in both basic and applied research relevant to this aspect of practice with this unique population.