The professional meeting I choose to discuss was a webinar. It was on the zero to three website.

The webinar was called Meeting the Developmental Needs of Infant and Toddlers in the Welfare
System and it was presented on May 7, 2012. The presenters were Fred Wulczyn, Brenda
Harden, Cecil Blucker and Patricia Cole.
This webinar discussed how important it is for infant and toddlers to receive quality care
in the welfare system. Infants are becoming one of the largest groups for first time admittance
into the welfare system and they are also one of the largest to spend longer amounts of time in
foster care. Early experiences are what shape the children. Because of this, there is a need for
consistent medical care, early intervention programs and home visits should be conducted.
One way to make the welfare systems better is to make sure the decisions and services
are developmentally appropriate. There needs to be a goal of enhancing the safety, permanency,
and developmental well-being of the infant and toddler. A second way is by seeing that the
children have stable and caring relationships. To do this there needs to be an understanding and
assessment of the parents issues. The relationship between the parent and the child also needs to
be assessed. A smooth transition between the parent and child should be supported by frequent
case review and supportive parent-child contact.
A final way is through intervention by providing physical, mental and emotional support.
This can be done by child-parent therapy and preventative health services. Infants and toddlers
not receiving quality care can have physical delays such as a failure to thrive and even injuries
and disease. They also can have developmental delays such a language delays and cognitive
defects. It is important for the welfare systems to keep in mind that attachment problems are
linked to later mental health and relationship difficulties. The welfare system needs to do as
much as possible to insure the children in the system have quality care.