Implementing Wrapping Littles: High Fidelity Wraparound and Early Childhood

Young children, especially infants under 1 year, enter foster care at disproportionately high rates. In federal fiscal year 2024, infants entered care at a rate more than three times that of children ages 1–5 years and higher than that of any other age group (Children’s Bureau, 2025). Research also indicates that children who enter foster care during infancy tend to remain in care longer than children who enter at older ages (Center for State Child Welfare Data, 2014). Because children ages 0–5 years comprise the largest group of entries into care, it’s important to understand their unique needs and how Wraparound can support them.  

“Unlike other organs, the brain is undeveloped at birth, and it is waiting for experiences to shape how it will develop. The amazing thing about the human brain is that the younger you are, the more spongelike your brain is, which is the reason that, in three years, children can learn language, learn to walk, and do all kinds of incredible things. But the very same biological sponginess that allows us to rapidly acquire language is also the same sponginess that makes young children more vulnerable to trauma than older children.” 

—Dr. Bruce D. Perry 

Babies and young children ages 0–5 are among our most vulnerable, and often most overlooked, young people. They may not yet be able to tell us what they need using speech, and the ways they communicate distress can look very different from the behaviors we recognize in older children. Their earliest experiences and relationships help to shape the foundation for future learning, health, behavior and well-being. 

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic experiences that occur before age 18, including abuse, neglect, exposure to violence and conditions that can disrupt a child’s sense of safety, stability and connection. These experiences do not determine a child’s future, but significant or prolonged adversity can affect developing brain and body systems and is associated with an increased risk of physical, behavioral and mental health challenges later in life (Swedo et al., 2024). 

Never Too Young for Wraparound 

This is where hope—and Wraparound—come in. A young person’s remarkable capacity for development means that early, caring and coordinated support can make a meaningful difference. When we Wrap our littlest people and their families, we surround them with protective factors such as positive relationships, resources and opportunities that promote safety, healing, connection and healthy development. 

Protective factors are the strengths, relationships, resources and conditions that help children and families navigate adversity and reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes. These may include a safe and nurturing relationship with a caregiver, dependable pro-social support, stable food and housing, co-regulation with caregivers and cultural and community connections. Research shows that family and community supports can shape how a child responds to trauma, while protective factors and positive childhood experiences may buffer some of the harmful effects associated with ACEs (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023; Swedo et al., 2024). 

This is why Wraparound should begin as early as possible … because even our littlest children have needs, strengths and voices that need to be heard and understood.  

High Fidelity Wraparound can and should serve babies and young children. However, Wrapping a family with a child ages 0–5 may look different from Wrapping a family with an older child or adolescent. A baby cannot participate in a Child and Family Team meeting, explain what is wrong or identify their goals. Even many preschool-aged children cannot fully describe their feelings, needs or experiences. But that does not mean they lack a voice or shouldn’t have a seat at the teaming table. 

Very young children communicate through their behavior, play, body language, relationships, preferences, developmental progress and responses to people and environments. The team’s responsibility is to learn how to listen. 

For this population, Wraparound does not require the team to “work with” the baby, as though the child must understand the process or independently change their behavior for Wraparound to be effective. The mental model that Wraparound is a behavior intervention service can unintentionally suggest that the child is the problem: that something within the child is defective and must be fixed before the family’s circumstances can improve. 

Instead, Wraparound asks a different set of questions: 

• What might this child’s behavior be communicating? 

• What has this child experienced? 

• When and where does the child appear to feel safest? 

• Which relationships help the child feel secure, connected and regulated? 

• What strengths are already present in the child and family? 

• What do the caregivers need to better understand and respond to the child? 

• What can the adults, services, routines and environments surrounding the child do differently? 

• What would help the entire family experience greater stability, connection and hope? 

A young child’s behavior is not evidence that the child is “bad,” intentionally difficult or unwilling to cooperate. It is often communication about an unmet need, a developmental limitation, sensory discomfort, fear, stress, disrupted attachment or an environment that is asking more of the child than the child can currently manage. The goal is not simply to stop a behavior. It is to understand what lies beneath it and help the child and family build the safety, relationships, skills and supports needed to thrive. 

What Does Wraparound Look Like for a Child Ages 0–5? 

The Facilitator 

The Facilitator ensures that the Wraparound process remains family-driven, youth-guided, strengths-based, culturally responsive and coordinated across the people and systems involved with the family. For a family with a baby or young child, the Facilitator can: 

• Keep the child’s experience visible during team discussions, even when the child cannot participate verbally 

• Ensure that the plan addresses the needs of the whole family rather than locating the problem solely within the child 

• Bring together caregivers, relatives, childcare providers, preschool staff and medical providers 

• Schedule meetings and services around feeding, naps, childcare, transportation, work, and other realities of caring for a young child 

• Help the team build strategies into the family’s existing routines, such as waking, meals, play, childcare transitions, bath time and bedtime 

• Regularly ask whether the plan is helping the family experience greater safety, stability, connection and confidence—not merely whether the child’s behavior has decreased 

• Celebrate progress that may appear small but is developmentally meaningful, such as a smoother transition, a caregiver recognizing a cue or a child seeking comfort from a trusted adult 

The Caregiver/Parent Partner 

The Caregiver/Parent Partner is aligned with the child’s parent or other caregivers, including foster or resource parents, grandparents, relatives and other primary caregivers. Drawing from lived experience, the Caregiver/Parent Partner builds trust, reduces isolation and helps caregivers feel understood and supported rather than blamed or judged. For a family with a baby or young child, this role can: 

• Provide emotional and moral support to caregivers who may feel exhausted, frightened or blamed 

• Reinforce that seeking help does not mean the caregiver has failed or that the child is defective 

• Normalize the caregiver’s experiences of fear, uncertainty and any self-doubt related to parenting 

• Help caregivers identify informal and natural supports so they are not carrying the weight of responsibility for a baby or toddler alone 

• Support communication among parents, resource parents, relatives and other caregivers when multiple adults are involved in the child’s care 

• Help caregivers identify barriers such as transportation, housing instability, childcare, food insecurity or lack of sleep that affect their ability to follow through with the plan 

• Encourage caregivers to notice their own progress, resilience and growing understanding of the child 

The Family Specialist 

The Family Specialist provides hands-on, behavior-focused support to the child, parents and caregivers. With babies and young children, this work should be grounded in developmentally appropriate expectations and should strengthen the caregiver-child relationship rather than focus only on changing the child’s behavior. The Family Specialist can: 

• Observe the child across everyday routines and environments to identify patterns, triggers, strengths and unmet needs 

• Help caregivers understand behavior as communication 

• Explore whether behaviors may be connected to developmental stage, trauma, attachment, sensory needs, communication difficulties, medical concerns, fatigue, hunger, changes in routine or environmental stress 

• Model developmentally appropriate ways to respond to crying, aggression, withdrawal, separation distress, sleep difficulties, feeding challenges, tantrums or transitions 

• Coach caregivers in co-regulation, recognizing that very young children first learn to regulate their emotions through safe and responsive relationships with adults 

• Use play, movement, repetition, visual supports, simple choices and predictable routines to help the child build skills 

• Identify changes adults can make to the environment before expecting the child to change 

• Work with childcare providers, preschool staff, and other caregivers to promote consistent and supportive responses across settings 

• Help the team measure progress in developmentally meaningful ways, such as increased connection, improved recovery after distress, fewer overwhelming transitions or greater caregiver confidence 

• Recognize when behaviors or developmental concerns may warrant additional assessment and help the team coordinate with appropriate specialists without labeling or pathologizing the child 

The Youth Partner 

The Youth Partner draws from lived experience to build connection, provide moral support, and keep the child’s voice and perspective at the center of the Wraparound process. This role remains important even when a child is too young to speak or participate in a traditional team meeting. 

For a baby or young child, the Youth Partner can: 

• Help the team maintain focus on how decisions may be experienced by the child 

• Build a safe, familiar and developmentally appropriate connection with the child through play, presence, shared activities and predictable interactions 

• Observe the child’s behavior, preferences, comfort, distress, relationships and responses without claiming to know exactly what the child thinks or feels 

• Help the team recognize the child’s nonverbal communication and remain curious about what it may mean 

• Ask child-centered questions when conversations become dominated by adult, provider or system priorities 

• Remind the team that reducing disruption, preserving meaningful relationships and creating predictability may be as important as addressing a specific behavior 

• Help the team identify the child’s interests, emerging abilities, sources of joy and relational strengths 

• Provide moral support during unfamiliar activities, transitions, appointments or other experiences that may be stressful for the child 

• Draw from lived experience to help adults consider how decisions made about a young child may be remembered or experienced later in life 

• Advocate for explanations, choices and involvement that match the child’s developmental abilities 

• Help ensure the child is known by the team as a whole person, not as a diagnosis, behavior, placement, case or collection of needs 

The Youth Partner helps the team slow down, remain curious and continually ask, “Where is the child’s experience in this decision?” 

Natural and Community Supports 

Young children and their families also benefit from people who will remain in their lives after formal services end. With the family’s direction, the team can involve relatives, friends, neighbors, childcare providers, faith-community members, coaches, cultural leaders or other trusted people. Natural supports can: 

• Provide practical help with meals, transportation, childcare, errands or household tasks 

• Offer companionship and emotional support to caregivers 

• Give the child additional safe, consistent, and nurturing relationships 

• Help preserve the family’s cultural, linguistic, spiritual and community connections 

• Participate in routines, celebrations and activities that give the child and family a sense of belonging 

• Learn and reinforce helpful strategies so support does not disappear when formal services end 

What Coordinated Wraparound Can Look Like 

Imagine a 3-year-old who has begun screaming, hitting and hiding whenever it is time to leave for childcare. A problem-focused approach might label the child as defiant and create a plan aimed primarily at stopping the behavior (i.e., create an incentive plan with rewards and consequences). 

A Wraparound team takes a wider view: 

• The Facilitator helps the team identify the underlying family need and brings together the people who understand the child’s different environments 

• The Caregiver Parent Partner supports the caregiver, who may feel judged, overwhelmed or blamed, and helps them communicate what mornings are really like 

• The Family Specialist observes the morning routine, helps identify triggers and practices strategies with the caregiver to create greater predictability and support co-regulation 

• The Youth Partner spends time connecting with the child through play, notices what appears to create comfort or distress and helps the team consider the morning routine from the child’s perspective 

• The Natural and Community Supports help make the plan sustainable; perhaps a grandparent assists with morning routines, a trusted childcare provider greets the child consistently or another family member prepares breakfast the night before 

Through this process, the team may learn that the child is not refusing childcare because they are defiant. The child may be overwhelmed by rushed mornings, distressed by separation, frightened by a recent change, sensitive to noise at the childcare entrance or reacting to tension among the adults. The Wraparound plan can then address what the child and family actually need rather than concentrating only on stopping the visible behavior. 

Wraparound Does Not ‘Fix’ Babies; It Strengthens Families 

The work of Wraparound with babies and young children does not depend on the child being able to explain their needs, understand a team plan or independently change their behavior. The work happens through relationships and within the environments surrounding the child. 

Wraparound aims to help caregivers better understand the child and themselves. It supports them in recognizing existing strengths, building new skills, increasing confidence, creating safer and more predictable routines and strengthening relationships. It also helps systems and providers adjust their own expectations and practices to meet the child and family where they are at. 

The goal is not to “fix” the baby. The goal is to build a circle of support in which the child and family can experience safety, connection, healing, belonging and hope. That is what it means to Wrap our littlest children. 

More Resources for Supporting Littles 

The California Department of Social Services has partnered with UC Davis to create the Early Intervention (0–5) Toolkit, which includes numerous resources for our youngest children and their families, as well as the California Wraparound Standards Toolkit, which helps our state implement high quality, community-based High Fidelity Wraparound practices. These tools were created with you and the children you serve in mind. Together we can make a difference for the littles who depend on all of us. 

Citations 

Center for State Child Welfare Data. (2014, July 11). Infants in the child welfare system: Epidemiology and development. Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. https://fcda.chapinhall.org/permanency/infants-child-welfare-system-epidemiology-development/ 

Children’s Bureau. (2025). The AFCARS dashboard: FFY 2024 AFCARS foster care data release [Data dashboard]. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/2024-afcars-dashboard-printable.pdf 

Swedo, E. A., Pampati, S., Anderson, K. N., Thorne, E., McKinnon, I. I., Brener, N. D., Stinson, J., Mpofu, J. J., & Niolon, P. H. (2024). Adverse childhood experiences and health conditions and risk behaviors among high school students—Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2023. MMWR Supplements, 73(4), 39–49. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su7304a5 

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) prevention: Resource for action—A compilation of the best available evidence. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/158965