The SSTP utilizes the Family Infant Relationship Support Training [FIRST, Browne, MacLeod, Smith, l996] which was adapted from the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program [NIDCAP ® Als, l985]. This training program is designed for high-risk newborns graduating from the intensive care nursery and spans development through to eight months corrected age in the home and community situation. The components of the instruction profile include:

Introductory Workshop [Day 1]
Prerequisite: None

All day lecture format with extensive use of video vignettes to demonstrate the unique behaviors and behavioral patterns to be learned. Content includes:
• early brain development
• newborn neurobehavioral development
• impact of illness on infant behavior and development
• issues for parents and families of hospitalized newborns
• approach to caregiving and handling including feeding, state regulation, interactions, enhancing motor development, promotion of physiologic stability

The Practicum [Day 2]
Prerequisite: Day 1

All day workshop with extensive use of video vignettes and training materials providing:
• practice and development of observational assessment skills
• recognition of supportive strategies in clinical practice
• interpretation of behavior and creation of approach to developmental caregiving and environmental adjustments

Individual Practice/Mentoring Sessions [Day 3]
Prerequisite: Days 1, 2

After the Practicum, participants are expected to complete 12 practice observations with practice designing intervention approaches. Midway through this practice, the Mentoring Session takes place with the trainer to clarify issues and reinforce concepts.

The Skills Check [Day 4]
Prerequisite: Days 1, 2, 3

After approximately 4-6 months and 12 practice observations, the trainee may spend a day with a trainer in a Skills Check Session. Assessment and certification of the trainee’s ability to use the FIRST independently and accurately is the goal of this level.

Advanced Practicum [Day 5]
Prerequisite: Days 1, 2, 3, 4

A 4 hour meeting for trainees who have reached and passed the Skills Check level. This is an informal session to review additional video vignettes, discuss developmental questions, issues, and share information about developmental assessments and interventions. It is designed to broaden and expand the trained professional who wants to learn additional strategies for supporting high-risk infants.

Continuing Education Days
Prerequisite: None

Several additional training topics have been offered by the SSTP staff upon request. These are all day workshops and include:

• The Development of Self Regulation: Birth to Three Years [6 hrs.]

The foundations for the development of self-regulation, the ability to regulate emotional states and organize a response to the environment (Schore, 2003; 2004), begins in the newborn period and develops over the first two years of life. Self-regulation includes the function of regulating behavioral and physiological processes including self-consoling, maintaining attention and organizing calm, alert, affectively positive states. Regulatory disorders will be discussed and the development of executive function.

• The Management of Difficult Behaviors: The Fragile, Stressed and Disorganized Infant [5 hrs.]

This Workshop addresses identification and interpretation of behavioral patterns in the young infant. Participants will develop an understanding of the etiology of disorganized, stressful patterns in the newborn infant, as well as self-regulatory balance and competence. Guidelines will be provided which support effective care giving for the irritable, fragile and disorganized infant. Specific care giving strategies to nurture the parent-infant relationship will be discussed.

• Management of the Disorganized Feeder

• Update of Medical Issues of NICU Graduates

A four-hour workshop which will cover descriptions of new medical techniques and update treatment scenarios for high-risk newborns who are discharged from the neonatal intensive care nursery. These medical conditions will include update on treatments for respiratory disease, surgical conditions, cardiac illness, and medical feeding issues.