Preparing for the VAIMH Endorsement® Exam
Pertains only to Infant Mental Health Specialist (IMHS), and Infant Mental Health Mentors (IMHM-Clinical, IMHM-Policy, and IMHM-Research/Faculty) candidates.
The Exam Resources are broken into lists based on classic vs. contemporary resources and also by competency area. This is especially helpful for individuals who need to focus their studying on specific content areas.
Part One (60 Multiple Choice Questions – 90 minutes)
Your study of the following topics, learned in a university program, through intensive infant mental health in-service trainings and workshops and self-study is the third component. Opportunities to reflect on what is learned with colleagues and senior clinicians helps to better ensure integration of theory into practice.
- Pregnancy, childbirth, and the newborn period.
- Attachment theory and early relationship development.
- Caregiving practices and behaviors.
- Family, parenting, and childcare issues.
- Infant and toddler development in all domains (e.g., social, emotional, cognitive, language, and physical).
- Temperament and individual differences in infancy and early childhood.
- Indicators of risk, identified disturbance or disorder, as well as capacity, in infancy, early childhood, and early parenthood.
- Infant mental health practice.
- Best practice of infant mental health assessment, diagnoses, and treatment approaches.
- Cultural competence.
- Familiarity with standardized screening and assessment tools.
- Familiarity with service delivery systems that cater to infants, toddlers, and their families.
- Reflective supervisory practice (Infant Mental Health Mentor IV-Clinical).
Part Two (Response to two of three Clinical Vignettes – 90 minutes)
Infant Mental Health Specialist (IMHS) – Consider:
- your work experiences with infants/toddlers and their families, where you are working from a relationship-based perspective practicing infant mental health.
- your experience of reflective supervision (individual or group).
Infant Mental Health Mentor – Clinical (IMHM-C):
- One clinical vignette/scenario must be answered from the perspective of a supervisor.
- One of two clinical vignettes/scenarios must be answered from the perspective of the infant mental health specialist/practitioner. Consider:
- your work experiences with infants/toddlers and their families, where you are working from a relationship-based perspective practicing infant mental health.
- your experience of reflective supervision (individual or group).
- your experience as a supervisor/consultant who has provided, or is providing, reflective supervision to practitioners working with infants, toddlers, young children, and parents/caregivers.
Infant Mental Health Mentor – Policy (IMHM-P): Policy Response to a Qualitative Question
You will rely on your extensive leadership experience with the infant-family field ensuring the promotion and practice of infant mental health. Consider:
- Funding
- Systems development
- All that is required to promote change across systems
Infant Mental Health Mentor – Research/Faculty (IMHM-R/F): Research Response to a Qualitative Question
You will rely on your extensive research and teaching experience in the infant-family field related to the study of pregnancy, infancy, early childhood, and early parenthood; attachment security and relationship needs; risk and resiliency in the early years; caregiving practices; early assessment and intervention strategies, and the mental health needs of infants and toddlers, to name a few.