Authors: Megan Gunnar,PhD, and Mary Harrison, PhD, LISCW
Date Published: August 2016

A series of five training videos to be used in training of child welfare workers about healthy serve and return interactions between parents and children were developed in partnership with the Institute of Child Development (ICD) and the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED). These in-depth videos demonstrate what “quality relationships” look like in real life and what kinds of behaviors and capacities a parent or foster parent needs in order to best support a child’s development.

  • Each training video includes an introduction to the concept of serve and return and then an example of a parent and child engaging in healthy serve and return interactions.
  • Each video also includes detailed explanation and examples of the kinds of parent behaviors and capacities that support healthy “serve and return” interactions. These include important infant and early childhood mental health concepts of: attunement, goodness of fit, mirroring, negotiating competing interests, positive reinforcement, repairing missteps, scaffolding, structuring the environment, and taking the child’s perspective.
  • The videos utilize footage of parents who have adopted young children from other parts of the world and breaks down their interactions to provide concrete examples of each of these concepts.

These in-depth videos will be used in the future online/hybrid training program and can be used by people who train child welfare practitioners in order to demonstrate what “quality relationships” look like in real life and what kinds of behaviors and capacities a parent or foster parent needs in order to best support a child’s development.

These videos will be used in an online/hybrid training program designed for Minnesota child welfare practitioners and can also be used by people who train child welfare practitioners in other settings. The videos are password protected. To request access please fill out this form.

For immediate requests or questions, please contact Mary Harrison.