Nurturing the Seed: The Journey to Infant and Early Mental Health and Wellness

Key Points

Nurturing the Seed (NTS) addresses the challenges families face in accessing early developmental support by using infant and early mental health science to provide timely interventions for children as soon as concerns arise.
The NTS tool is designed to create Developmental Support Plans for children under 6, focusing on strengthening the parent-child relationship and supporting child development in a culturally meaningful way.
The NTS model, developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders and experts, offers training, resources, and ongoing support to service providers, aiming to improve service delivery, developmental outcomes, and family well-being across Canada.

Note: If you are an NTS project participant, please log into the NTS Portal to access materials and more.

Overview

Nurturing the Seed (NTS) is an innovative infant and early mental health program that aims to support and strengthen the well-being of Indigenous children, parents/caregivers, and communities. NTS fosters local leadership, supports front-line service providers, and responds to the needs of families by providing tools, coaching, and resources specific to the health and development of infants and children (ages 0-5). NTS utilizes developmental screening and culturally relevant, relationship-focused planning to support optimal development in young children.

Created in 2019, the NTS model was co-designed by IEMHP in partnership with Indigenous Elders and experts to incorporate and reflect cultural practices and values. It was developed to address the challenges many families face in accessing timely and appropriate services and supports needed when developmental concerns arise. NTS offers responsive, simple, tangible strategies for families to incorporate into their daily lives immediately while waiting for specialized services that often have long waitlists.

NTS is an inclusive and flexible program that can be adapted by agencies based on their community’s unique needs and service delivery models. The NTS philosophy is rooted in three key concepts: (1) the first 5 years of life are crucial for a child's development, (2) parents and caregivers are the experts in their child's life, and (3) early developmental screening using tools such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQs) is vital.

Developmental Support Plans

The program utilizes customizable Developmental Support Plans (DSPs) to help nurture healthy development in the five domains through everyday activities and positive routines, fostering self-esteem and resilience.

For the creation of DSPs, service providers utilize the NTS web app. The app is based on the five domains, subdividing them into categories and then objectives to make it easy for service providers and caregivers to select goals to work on with the child. To help achieve each goal, the NTS app is strength-based and written in the voice of the child: beginning with “What I can already do”, followed by a database of strategies (activities/routines) to choose from, and concluding with the benefit or “Why this is important to me”.

Implementation

For the past 6 years, IEMHP has worked closely with 10 communities across Canada which have been implementing NTS via a champion agency. There are many other organizations across the country which have independently integrated NTS into their practice and the services they offer to families. The process includes engagement with agency leaders, staff training, and family enrollment with a goal of at least 4 structured visits per child.

Benefits

Families: Caregivers express positive experiences, feeling more confident in supporting their child’s development, and improved family dynamics.
Children: Early results demonstrate that NTS is successful in supporting child development and building relationships between children and their caregivers.
Service Providers: Training and ongoing supports help service providers increase skill and confidence in using tools to assess development and respond in a timely manner, enhancing job satisfaction and effectiveness.
Communities: NTS fosters a shared language for child development, enhancing collaboration among caregivers and service providers as well as among agencies and community.

Evaluation Project

The project aims to evaluate NTS’s impact while addressing a national gap in data for children ages 0–5. There are currently 10 sites participating in the NTS evaluation project. Key features include: