Toddler CARE-Index – Reggio Emilia (Italy) and online – 2026

The Toddler CARE-Index (TCI) is a screening tool for risk and a guide intervention; it can even be part of the intervention (see Crittenden et al, 2024). It uses 5-minute video-recorded play interaction (on a cell phone) and can be recorded anywhere (home, clinic, park, etc.). The TCI is suitable for children from 15 months to 5 years old. The coded TCI permits professionals to estimate children’s strategy for coping adults’ use of authority. The TCI is suitable for mothers, fathers, grandparents, etc., including professionals. TCIs must be coded by trained coders; coding takes about 20 minutes. This course prepares professionals to take the TCI Reliability Test.

Course dates:

• Residential & on-line, Sept. 21 afternoon; Sept. 22 all day; Sept. 23 morning
• On-line only: Sept. 29, Oct. 2, 6, 9, 13, 16: 4-6pm EU; 3-5pm UK; 10am-12pm ET see Courses – Family Relations Institute for times of meetings.

Course location: Reggio Emilia, Italy & online.

Language: English (with facilitation in German for those who prefer that).

Facilitator Guided practice: Due Sundays: Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, Dec. 6, 13, with weekly facilitator feedback.

Prerequisites: Attachment, Neurodevelopment, & Treatment; Infant CARE-Index (ICI)

Cost: € 650, see ‘registration’ below.

Reliability Test: By invitation only, January 2027 (not included in course fee)

The TCI can be used with other family information to:

• Screen dyads for services
• Assist parents to understand and modify their infant’s behavior
• Estimate children’s attachment strategy
• Guide decision-making around placement, fostering, and adoption

The TCI assesses adults on sensitive, controlling, and unresponsive scales and infants on cooperation, compulsive, threatening, and disarming scales. The scales are relevant to deciding what kind of intervention to offer. The adult scales are related to the toddler scales as follows: adult sensitivity with toddler cooperation, adult control with toddler compulsive compliances, adult mixed patterns with coercive toddlers, and adult unresponsiveness with toddler compulsive caregiving or depression.

Trainers: Patricia M. Crittenden, PhD & Andrea Landini, MD, & Peter Schernhardt, PhD (co-trainer).

Dr. Crittenden is a developmental psychopathologist who trained under Mary Ainsworth at the University of Virginia. She has published research and applications for more than 40 years. Dr. Landini is a child psychiatrist who has delivered treatment, taught assessments of attachment, and authored research and applied chapters. Dr. Schernhardt is a university lecturer and psychotherapist who offers treatments and trainings in areas including early childhood and parent-child relationships.

Further information can be found on the FRI website: www.familyrelationsinstitute.org.

Registration: To enroll, please e-mail fri.segreteria@gmail.com. If there is space available, you will be sent details regarding class times & payment. Registration is not confirmed until payment is received. There are no invoices, refunds or transfers.

Crittenden, P., Farnfield, S., Spieker, S., Landini, A., Oxford, M., Robson, K., Johnson, H., Ellis, V., & Ash, Z. (2024). Alternatives to Foster Care. In Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in the 21st Century. Marco Carotenuto (Ed.). London: IntechOpen.