What does trauma-informed care mean?
The more we support children who have had traumatic experiences, the better their chance of thriving.
Supporting Babies and Toddlers in Foster Care: What Educators Need to Know
AUTHOR
Author
Hannah Schottenfels, LMSW, IMH-E
Training and Technical Assistance Specialist, Safe Babies, ZERO TO THREE
Hannah Schottenfels, LMSW, IMH-E, is a Licensed Social Worker, Infant Mental Health Specialist, and Endorsed Reflective Supervisor with the Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health. She serves as a Training and Technical Assistance Specialist with Safe Babies, a ZERO TO THREE program, in her hometown of Detroit. With experience in home visiting, social-emotional consultation, training, and reflective supervision, Hannah’s work is grounded in community, relationships, cultural values, and transformative justice.
Every day, babies and toddlers enter child care settings carrying invisible burdens — grief, trauma and confusion that come from being separated from their families.
For those in foster care, these experiences happen in real time and while they’re still adjusting to a new home, while they’re visiting their parents under supervision, and while their entire world remains uncertain.
Children under age 3 are the largest group entering the child welfare system, accounting for more than 1 in 3 foster care entries. These babies are in the most sensitive period of brain development, yet they are also the most vulnerable to relational disruption.
As an educator, your consistent, loving care matters more than you may realize. You can’t change a child’s past, but you can shape how safe they feel today and play a role in prevention by supporting their healthy development and family connections.
Understand What Foster Care Feels Like to a Baby
Babies in foster care may not understand court dates or visitation plans, but they feel the rupture of being separated from familiar caregivers.
This can create a deep sense of loss and confusion.
Young children may show signs of distress through:
- Sleep disturbances or difficulty being soothed
- Withdrawal or intense clinginess
- Regression in language or motor skills
- Heightened sensitivity to transitions or separation
- Difficulty, hesitancy or increased frustration when taking on new tasks
Research shows that repeated separations disrupt secure attachment, especially in the first three years. But when babies experience consistent, responsive caregiving, even in temporary settings, their ability to trust and regulate can be rebuilt.
Promote Healing Through Consistency, Predictability, and Attunement
Children navigating foster care often experience a swirl of transitions, such as new homes, new caregivers, and supervised visits with their parents, that can bring both joy and distress.
In your classroom, stability becomes a form of healing.
What helps:
- Consistent routines (play, meals, naps, transitions)
- Narrating what’s next (“After snack, we’ll read a book, then nap time.”)
- Extra emotional support around drop-off and pick-up
- Visual schedules and rituals to ease anxiety
- Practicing patience and offering repeated opportunities for connection. While we have many tools to support children navigating stress and unknowns, these children need the willingness of trusted adults to keep trying and offer more chances.
These simple, yet predictable structures counter the instability children may feel elsewhere and help strengthen the bond between child and caregiver. They are most effective when grounded in strong, reliable relationships with adults in a child’s life.
Observe Carefully and Use Play as Communication
Like children processing grief, those in foster care often express their inner world through play. They may reenact themes related to separation, such as “goodbyes” or “hiding”, during play.
Pay attention to:
- Behavior shifts after family visits
- Trauma reenactments in pretend play
- Repeated themes of fear or abandonment
- Extreme withdrawal or aggression
Your observations can be a bridge to early identification of mental health needs and timely supports.
Build Relationships with All Caregivers
For babies in foster care, family is not just one household.
It can include their parents, resource caregivers, kin and siblings in other homes. When educators honor all these connections, they promote healing and strengthen protective factors.
Ways to bridge the gap:
- Greet both their parents and resource caregivers warmly, without judgment
- Share children’s successes and daily routines
- Invite caregivers to participate in classroom activities
- Communication with a strength-based lens
Trust-building between caregivers benefits the child. It reinforces a sense of unified safety across settings.
Elevate Family Voice
Families experiencing child welfare involvement want to be partners in their children’s care and healing.
Parents have said peer mentors, supportive educators, and providers who listen with respect made the difference between disengaging and staying connected.
Educators can help by:
- Asking parents about their child’s routines, likes and comforts
- Valuing parents as the experts on their own children
- Sharing classroom observations in ways that highlight strengths
- Supporting family visits with continuity
How can including parent voice change the trajectory of a baby involved in child welfare?
Know When to Recommend More Support
Not all babies and toddlers in care will need therapy, but for some who have experienced neglect, violence, or multiple placements may need early mental health assessment and services.
Watch for:
- Severe attachment struggles
- Self-soothing behaviors like rocking or head-banging
- Lack of eye contact or affect
- Excessive fear or aggression
- Changes in meeting developmental milestones
- Lack of interest in developmentally appropriate play or exploration
- Approach caregivers with curiosity: “I’ve noticed some things that might mean the child is having a hard time adjusting. Have you seen anything similar at home?” Infant and early childhood mental health services can prevent deeper challenges and help families heal.
Many states have IECMH consultants available to ECE providers. In states without specific IECMH consultation, early intervention referrals would respond.
You Are a Protective Relationship
In the eyes of a baby in foster care, you are more than a teacher. You are part of their circle of safety.
By offering stability, warmth, and respect for every relationship in a child’s life, you contribute to their healing and healthy development. At the same time, we must remember that educators need support, too. Caring for children who have experienced trauma can be demanding, and no one should carry that weight alone. Reflective supervision, ongoing training in trauma-responsive practices and opportunities for peer connection are essential supports that combat compassion fatigue and sustain early childhood educators in this work.
When educators are supported, they are better able to provide the consistent, nurturing care that babies in foster care need the most.
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