Prenatal Development and the 1st Year of Life: The Gateway to Learning

• Cost: Free
• Format: Virtual
• Length: 3 hours 15 minutes
• CEUs: 3 Social Work CEUs
• Audience: Behavioral health providers, CYFD staff, and other community stakeholder who work with children, youth, and families.

Participants will explore how prenatal development and the first year of life are foundational for learning. Pregnancy triggers a "social brain" transformation in the mother, driven by hormonal changes that reorganize the brain to enhance maternal behaviors like emotional regulation and attachment. Simultaneously, the mother’s and the developing infant’s social brains interconnect neural systems that allow them to synchronize and respond to each other. The infant’s social brain has been referred to as the "gateway to learning," meaning that social interaction, especially face-to-face communication, is crucial for early learning. However, factors like maternal trauma, anxiety, and depression can disrupt fetal brain structure and function, interfering with face-to-face communication and early learning. Promising relationship-based treatments such as Perinatal Child-Parent Psychotherapy can support the dyadic relationship during pregnancy through the first year of life to address adverse factors that potentially compromise the “gateway to learning.”

Trainer:
Jane Clarke, Ph.D.

Dr. Jane Clarke has a Ph.D. in Special Education with a focus on Early Childhood Language/Learning Disabilities, alongside master's degrees in Speech/Language Pathology and Learning Disabilities. She has completed post-doctoral work at Fielding University and fellowships in Infant-Parent Mental Health. Recently, she finished a fellowship in Reflective Supervision Consultation at UC-Davis. With extensive experience supporting high-risk infants and families, she is trained in various assessment procedures and interventions, and has developed innovative assessment tools such as DIAPER and DOVE. Currently, Jane serves as a statewide trainer and consultant for the NM-CYFD BHS – Infant Mental Health program and has been endorsed as an Infant Mental Health Mentor since 2007.

• Participants will learn about the critical stages of prenatal development.
• Participants will learn about the critical stages of the 1st year of life.
• Participants will understand why the infant’s social brain is called the “gateway of learning.”
• Participants will recognize how factors like maternal trauma, anxiety, and depression can
  disrupt fetal brain structure and function, interfering with face-to-face communication and
  early learning.
• Participants will be able to describe how relationship-based treatments that support the
  dyadic relationship during pregnancy through the first year of life can address adverse
  factors that potentially compromise the “gateway to learning.”

This training brought to you through a partnership with the State of New Mexico's Children, Youth, and Families Department.