ABSTRACT
The parent–toddler service has expanded and evolved since Joyce Robertson first started a group for mothers and toddlers at the Hampstead Clinic in the 1950s. The first group was an informal offshoot from the Well-Baby Clinic, to help mothers understand and respond to their infants’ changing physical and emotional needs once they grew into active toddlers. The groups provide a space where, to paraphrase Winnicott, steady experiences in relationships enable toddlers to enjoy the enrichment that comes from discovery of their internal and external worlds, and to progress along the line from dependency to emotional self-reliance. The groups meet in the same place and at the same time each week, and prepare carefully for anticipated changes. In this way, they provide a model for the sort of secure base that parents need to provide for their own toddlers. The toddler group staff encourage parents to share their toddler’s play, and communicate with him or her on a symbolic representational level.
