This interactive course runs continuously, so you can sign up at any time. It offers five hours of self-directed online learning which you can undertake at a time, pace and location that suits you.

You will have access to the course and its materials for one year. Access begins the day after you’ve booked, when you will receive your account details by email.

This mini course is also available as part of the Understanding and Nurturing Troubled Children course bundle, a convenient option that offers one year’s access to four complementary courses.

This course will allow you to:

• discover how infants and children learn and adapt to their environment – adjusting to the emotional style and cultural expectations of their family and social group
• identify some of the environmental, societal and cultural factors that can affect an infant’s development even before birth, including the impact of chronic stress
• explore the powerful interaction between nature and nurture – encompassing the field of epigenetics and how our experiences can affect our genetic potential
• establish the importance of interpersonal interaction, how we are all born primed to interact and relate to others, and how good early relationships are central to emotional health and growth

There are no specific requirements for the course, although we suggest you are working with, or have an interest in working with children, or want to learn more about the effects of difficult early experiences on children’s minds and behaviours.

There’s a multiple choice question assessment at the end of the course, which provides access to your Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust CPD certificate upon completion.