At the Centre, we believe there is an urgent need to elevate the agency of infants in early intervention. In thinking about the relational ethics of providing therapeutic care, incorporation of arts and play-based modes as a key component of early support efforts opening additional opportunities to nurture infant and parent wellbeing.

The scholarship highlights the capability of therapeutic arts and play approaches, interventions, and initiatives to strengthen the relational health of infants and parents. Arts and play are not simply tools or resources used to foster engagement, they are intrinsic modes that enable a deeper inquiry into the multidimensional aspects of infant, parent, and infant-parent lives that bypass verbal and conscious understanding.

It makes developmental, emotional, relational, and cultural sense!

Utilising the arts and play acts to respond to infants by creating opportunities for multisensory and multidimensional connections with caregivers who are invited to respond in ways that are authentic and attuned. The various materials and processes function to hold and contain the intensities, hesitations, and ambivalences of the parent-infant relationship that are nested within the practitioner/professional relationship as well as the caregiving environment(s).

Interdisciplinary Collaborations

Working in silos does not serve anyone well, least of all infants. Our vision is to unite passionate professionals incorporating the arts and play in everyday practice to support the wellbeing of infants and their families. Recognising relational health as complex and dynamic, the village needs to be composed of different people with various strengths, abilities, and competencies, we seek diversity in training, experience, and discipline.

This includes:

• Allied health and health professionals
• Early childhood educators
• Child protection workers
• Academics and experienced consultants
• Support workers and students
• Anyone supporting infants and their family

There is a need to generate new or different knowledge that informs how we approach supporting infants and families. For example, psychology + architecture, arts + neuroscience, medical model + new materialism. By exploring other ways to critically extend our insights into perinatal and infant mental health, we can innovate new and responsive interventions that are effective, accessible, and meaningful.

Through arts-based research, postdevelopmental practices, and working in or alongside different disciplines or paradigms, we can better respond to the needs of infants and their families as well as become involved in co-designing programs, education, and therapeutic support.