The Maternal Sensitivity Program: A Model for Promoting Infant Development in Challenging Contexts

This book presents the Maternal Sensitivity Program (MSP), an eight-session home-delivered intervention designed to enhance overall maternal sensitivity to infant behavior between the third and the tenth month of life using video feedback and live modeling strategies. The intervention was based on successful international programs but was specifically developed to fit the realities and needs of low-income countries, whose public health services rely on scarce human and economic resources. The program aims to promote maternal acknowledgment of infant mental activity and model responses that encourage infants' communication of intentions, needs, desires, and emotions.

The first part of the book provides an overview of core theories related to the concept of maternal sensitivity, illustrating how it varies across cultural contexts, and how it is shaped by economic scarcity. The second part of the book presents evidence of the effectiveness of sensitivity-based interventions, describes and provides a rationale for the Maternal Sensitivity Program (MSP), and proposes a framework for training interventionists seeking to implement the program in different contexts. The third part of the book presents the intervention manual, describing in detail the procedures in each of the eight sessions of the program.

The Maternal Sensitivity Program: A Model for Promoting Infant Development in Challenging Contexts will be an invaluable resource for developmental psychologists, health care providers, and social workers who work with families in low-income countries and in contexts of social vulnerability and need to implement low-cost interventions to foster healthy child development.   

Dr. Patrícia Alvarenga is an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA/Brazil) and a researcher from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq/Brazil). In the last ten years, her work has been focused on interventions to promote sensitive parenting practices and young children’s social-emotional development, which fit the needs of families from low socio-economic backgrounds. 

Dr. Maria Ángeles Cerezo is a Chair in Psychology at the University of Valencia, Spain. Her research publications focus on family relationships, especially early interaction with babies as a predictor of child attachment. Applying the science of babies, she developed a universal program to support parents and their babies to promote their well-being and emotional security (Spanish and English versions: PAPMI® & PCPS®). Her university recognized this applied facet of her work through the Social Innovation spin-off Instituto Psicológico Infancia y Familia (IPINFA), where she is the Scientific Director.

Dr. Yana Kuchirko is an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She examines sociocultural and ecological contexts of child development. Specifically, she focuses on features of children's early experiences in their everyday settings (home, neighborhood, school), and how vary by ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, and gender. A core facet of her work centers on the structure and function of language interactions among children and their families from different ethnic/racial and cultural backgrounds.