News and Trends

The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc., founded in 1986 by Michael D. Trout, specializes in the study, assessment and treatment of problems of attachment in infancy and throughout life. Mr. Trout-who completed his specialized training in infant psychiatry with Prof. Selma Fraiberg at the University of Michigan Medical School in the early 1970's-brought a novel approach to understanding the behavior and development of infants and young children to assessment and clinical practice. Clinical practitioners at The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc., including Martin Srajek, PhD, MS, LCSW; Jim Linder, MS; and Michael Trout, MA, LCPC-work with children in foster care, conduct divorce mediation, consult about the development of infants through pre-school children, work with special issues in the emotional development of boys and men, and treat individuals and families of nearly every age.

The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc. is also a national training center in clinical infant mental health. Over the years, 750 professionals (from child psychiatrists to child welfare workers) have come to The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc.'s Brief Summer Course in Infant Mental Health from all over the United States, and another 1,500 have graduated from presentations of the Course in Florida, Pennsylvania, Maine, Virginia, North Carolina, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Ontario, Washington, D.C., and New York City. The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc. has produced 15 documentary films that are in use around the world.

Mr. Trout's book, The Jonathon Letters, co-written with a foster-adopt mother from Virginia, was published in 2005, and another book-Baby Verses-is now being developed.

The Research Division of The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc. - as well as our affiliate non-profit foundation, Collaborative Solutions, Inc., includes professionals from clinical, developmental and experimental psychology, social work, criminal justice and related fields, all eager to turn their attention to significant new issues in children's mental health, women's health, treatment outcome and program evaluation. The Research Division has a staff of 17, with offices in Chicago and Champaign.

A new specialty center at The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc. - The Center for Men and Masculinity-was founded by Dr. Martin Srajek in 2005. CFMM's express purpose is to investigate issues in the emotional development of boys and men, and developing specialized services to meet these needs.

Further information about The Infant-Parent Institute, Inc. may be obtained through the web site (www.infant-parent.com) or calling 352-4060.

Announcements

SPECIAL STUDY PROGRAM FOR FOSTER/ADOPT PARENT GROUPS

We are now donating The Jonathon Letters by Michael Trout and Lori Thomas which is published by the Infant-Parent Institute to parent support groups around the United States for their use and study. To find out more about this great offer, please click here.

SPANISH-LANGUAGE VERSION OF MULTIPLE TRANSITIONS

In response to a great many inquiries and suggestions from child welfare and infant-parent programs serving Hispanic populations across the US, we set about the task of turning our film, "Multiple Transitions: A Young Child's Point of View About Foster Care and Adoption" into a Spanish-language, culturally-attuned film that could be used with Hispanic audiences.

We knew it would not be enough to simply translate the words into Spanish. The film had to take cultural differences into account, the little voices had to be those of children of Hispanic origin, and the music had to be just right. Now, 15 months later, we are ready to release "Transiciones Multiples: El Punto de Vista de un Nino Sobre el Cuidado de Familias de Acogida Temporal y la Adopcion".

In the process, we had the priceless help of Janet Rodriguez, MSW, Director of Hispanic Cultural Awareness in Columbia, South Carolina. Not only did Janet supervise the three translations (to make sure we had accounted for various dialects), recruit the little children to speak the parts, and advise us on cultural issues, but she even organized two pilot showings to varied Hispanic audiences. She also helped us find Enrique Cardenas, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, who composed the original music for this version of our film.

Cost of this version of the film remains the same as the English-language version ($70, including shipping), in either VHS or DVD version. Click here to purchase.

Trout Travels - 2008

July 22-23, 2008 - Two-Day Course in Infant Mental Health Assessment and Intervention, sponsored Allegany County Schools, Frostburg, Maryland.

September 25-27, 2008, workshop "When the Soul Has Been Wounded: Clinical and Developmental Issues with Foster and Adopted Children and Their Families", and keynote "Early Social Experience, Adaptation, Memory and Genetics: What We are Learning in Developmental Neurobiology" at the "Science Meets our Hearts" Conference, co-sponsored by the Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health and West Kootenay Success by Six Program, Nelson, British Columbia (Canada).

October 27-30, 2008 - Four-Day Course in Infant Mental Health Assessment and Intervention, sponsored by MS Early Head Start Program, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Library of Articles

To Learn About Babies is to Learn About Interdependency - published in the Newsletter of the Illinois Association for Infant Mental Health, Spring, 2008.

Christmas Letter 2007 - PDF format. For the second year in a row, we are privileged to publish the amazing Christmas letter of one of our dear friends, and a member of the Institute community. I don't care much for Christmas letters, usually, but Leslie's always knock me out. She is kind to let us share the bounty of her writing…Michael Trout

I Have a Dream - PDF format

My Grandfather's Chair - PDF format

Father Loss and Transference in Adolescent Parenting - PDF format

Sometimes It Seems We Have Made No Advancements At All - PDF format

By Michael Trout
and Lori Thomas
Published by the
Infant-Parent Institute

192 Pages
ISBN 0-9761546-0-9

$22.95 Print Format

$29.95 Audio Format