Baby Steps: Trauma & Resilience in Infancy
Viridian Event Center
8030 South 1825 West
West Jordan, UT 84088
Friday, January 26th from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Dr. DeKoeyer-Laros will open the one-day conference with a talk on Trauma and Resilience in Babies. The conference about infant mental health is sponsored in association with Utah Association for Infant Mental Health (UAIMH).
Dr. DeKoeyer-Laros acknowledges awareness and training going on now related to trauma and ACEs (e.g., Dr. Patricia Kerig’s work focuses on ACEs in teenagers). But there is not a lot of knowledge about what infants need when they have experienced anything traumatic (ranging from a one-time event, such as an accident or a medical intervention, to consistent abuse). Infants are still affected by such events, which often becomes clear in problems with sleeping or eating, increased crying, or more tantrums, when they are a little older. Pediatricians often don’t know what to advise and parents often don’t know what to do. The one day conferene on Friday, January 26 will feature five presenters with expertise related to this question, including an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health clinician from The Children’s Center, Jennifer Mitchell.
Associate Professor (Lecturer), Psychology Department
e-mail: ilse.dekoeyerlaros@utah.edu
Dr. Ilse DeKoeyer-Laros came to Utah from The Netherlands in the year 2000. She has conducted research into early parent-child relationships, emotional development, and the development of self-awareness. In 2006, she had a baby of her own. Since then, she has been teaching psychology classes at the University of Utah: classes in developmental psychology (spanning all ages, from infancy to old age), abnormal child psychology, general psychology, research methods, field experience, and others. In 2015, she was awarded the Superior Teaching Award of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (CSBS). In addition, Dr. DeKoeyer-Laros holds a part-time position as Child Development Specialist with Help Me Grow Utah. Help Me Grow is a free parenting information and resource line that offers parenting support, child development information, developmental screening for young children, and connection to resources in the community. Dr. DeKoeyer-Laros is a founding Board Member of the Utah Association for Infant Mental Health (UAIMH), of which she is currently the President.