Nurturing the Seed

The Journey to Infant and Early Mental Health and Wellness

The NTS Tool

Nurturing the Seed is a tool specifically designed to promote infant and early mental health, to mitigate vulnerabilities and/or to prevent further risks for Indigenous children under 6 years of age, in a culturally meaningful way. It does so by allowing service providers to build a Developmental Support Plan (DSP) tailored to young children and their families, that supports parents/caregivers in including simple activities in their daily routine which 1) reinforce the parent/caregiver-child relationship, and 2) support the child’s development in the five domains.

Programs and services using NTS, in combination with the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQs), increase their capacity to support children and families. The time spent waiting for more intensive services can be optimized through NTS by providing timely, accessible, and meaningful supports to families. NTS guides service providers and families through a process that focuses on the child, their strengths and holistic development as well as the caregiving relationship. It is written in the voice of the child, acknowledging where the child currently is, and supporting next steps in their development.

The NTS Model

The NTS tool is at the heart of the Nurturing the Seed service model created for Indigenous infants, toddlers and young children and their parents/caregivers. The model is designed to guide and support service providers in their work with children, from birth to age 6, and their families. Indigenous Elders, service providers and content experts worked on the model with IEMHP, keeping Indigenous culture, traditions, and ways of being and knowing front-and-center in the planning and design.

Use of the NTS model has demonstrated the strongest results when leaders and service providers across organizations and sectors are trained and supported in using the tools. NTS was also developed to support communities and agencies in working collaboratively, and is guided by and tailored to communities’ unique needs. The NTS model includes training, coaching, resources, technology, and ongoing support for implementing and sustaining the model widely in communities.

The NTS Project

Over the past several years, Nurturing the Seed has also evolved into a pan-Canadian project. This NTS work measures the effectiveness of the NTS model - in particular, the use of the tools with families of Indigenous children, from birth to age 6. It evaluates the improvement of:

• infant and early mental health service delivery, 
• Indigenous children's developmental outcomes, and 
• Indigenous families’ wellbeing and empowerment.

There are currently 10 active NTS project sites across Canada. Sites are from different geographic locations in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

The NTS project team is led by Dr. James Reynolds & team, Queen’s University; Dr. Jennifer Zwicker & team, University of Calgary; and IEMHP.

The project is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada.