The Brazelton Touchpoints Approach™ is a practical approach for enhancing the competence of parents and building strong family-child relationships from before birth through the earliest years, laying the vital foundation for children’s healthy development.
The Touchpoints Approach™ has grown out of over 60 years of infant research and practice by Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, a leading pediatrician and developer of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) used worldwide. The Touchpoints Approach™ is based on an extensive body of additional scientific research, practice and program evaluations. Read about the Touchpoints Evidence Base.
Learn more about
- Brazelton Touchpoints & Evidence Base
- Touchpoints Video and Overview
- Touchpoints Professional Development Programs
- Touchpoints in Early Care and Education
- Touchpoints Tribal Initiative
- Becoming a Touchpoints Site
The Brazelton Touchpoints Approach™ is a practical approach for enhancing the competence of parents and building strong family-child relationships from before birth through the earliest years, laying the vital foundation for children’s healthy development.
Children develop their skills in many different areas at the same time. When children show a sudden burst in one area of development, they often “regress”, or backslide, in another area. This is really a positive sign of development moving forward, but parents and providers might find themselves worried, or disagreeing with each other. These bursts can disorganize children’s feelings and actions and disrupt caregiving routines, such as feeding and sleeping. Just think of the budding toddler who has just learned to walk and now no longer wants to nap predictably or sit for a meal! Touchpoints of the first years typically can be predicted to happen when the child is:
3 Weeks
6-8 Weeks
4 Months
7 Months
12 Months
15 Months
18 Months
2 YearsApproach to Relationships
The Touchpoints Approach reminds us every day of the power of strong and positive caregiving relationships in promoting best developmental outcomes for children. Developmental “Touchpoints™” can be stressful to parents and providers because Touchpoints disorganize children’s behavior and routines. However, Touchpoints offer opportunities for providers to “touch” into the family system, helping parents carefully watch and understand their child’s behavior and strengths.
Parents and care providers can then together look forward to periods of regression and disorganization more positively, being supportive of each other and of the child, in stronger shared caregiving partnerships. Parents and providers working together around these “Touchpoints” nurtures the relationship between providers and the children, between providers and the families, and between families and children. This supports families in meeting the needs of their children. Providers have such a powerfully important role in supporting young children and their whole families.
Resources
- Touchpoints Model of Development
- A Developmental Approach for the Prevention of Common Behavioral Problems
- Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics Handbook - Touchpoints
- Touchpoints, Birth to Three and Touchpoints, Three to Six
The Touchpoints Approach™ has grown out of over 60 years of infant research and practice by Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, a leading pediatrician and developer of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) used worldwide. The Touchpoints Approach is based on an extensive body of additional scientific research, practice and program evaluations.
Learn more about the evidence base for the Touchpoints Approach:
- Touchpoints Theory of Change
- Touchpoints Theory of Change Companion Guide
- A Review of Early Care and Education Literature: Evidence Base for Touchpoints
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In 2001, the Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC) established the Tribal Touchpoints initiative to develop partnerships with Native communities to support child and family development. Since its inception, the Tribal Touchpoints initiative has reached over 7,000 young children and their families enrolled in Early Head Start programs. Recognizing the significance of family and other caregiver relationships in the early brain development of infants and toddlers, BTC partnered with nine tribal communities to build upon their strengths and cultural values of family and childrearing practices.
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Brazelton Touchpoints Center
1295 Boylston Street, Suite 320, Boston, MA 02215
Phone: 857-218-4451 / Fax: 617- 730-0060
eMail: touchpoints@childrens.harvard.edu