To celebrate Infant Mental Health Week 2026, Growing Gently Psychology is sharing this free resource exploring attunement through a neurodiversity-affirming lens.
 
Infant Mental Health Week is an annual initiative that highlights the importance of infant social, emotional, and relational wellbeing, and the role that early relationships play in healthy development. The 2026 theme, "Attunement," focuses on how parents and caregivers notice, understand, and respond to their infant's cues and experiences.
 
Traditional understandings of attunement have largely been shaped by neurotypical assumptions about communication, connection, and development. This one-page resource offers introductory insights into neurodiversity-affirming attunement, exploring how neurodivergent parent-child dyads may communicate, connect, and regulate in ways that differ from dominant expectations. It invites parents, practitioners, and educators to broaden their understanding of communication, reconsider common assumptions, and reflect on how attunement can be understood through a neurodiversity-affirming lens.
 
Please note that this resource is intended as a brief introduction and does not cover all aspects of attunement or neurodivergence.
 
Format: One-page PDF
 
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