Why We Think Babies

Kerrie has always been drawn to the way babies experience the world as a brand-new place. For babies, everything is worthy of exploration, a new and interesting discovery. Today, Kerrie has dedicated her work to promoting healthy social-emotional development for infants, toddlers and their families, or infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). As director of the South Carolina Program for Infants/Toddler Care, she guides the state’s efforts to build understanding of IECMH among professionals who work with children and families. She also leads efforts to strengthen South Carolina’s IECMH workforce. Kerrie knows that the better community members understand IECMH, the better we can prepare young children for a healthy future.

Unfortunately, the adults in Maya’s early life struggled to keep her safe and meet her needs. As a young single dad coming out of that time, Samuel found very few resources available to help him and his daughter cope with the impact of that early trauma. Samuel’s family would have benefited from access to infant and early childhood mental health services, including trauma-informed child care, which could have supported Maya’s development during those critical early years. Samuel wishes more resources were available to families like his, to prevent lifelong developmental delays and mental health disorders from taking root.