T. Berry Brazelton and Janet Gonzalez-Mena

An excerpts from, "The Touchpoints Model of Development" by T. Berry Brazelton.

"All parents benefit from affirmation of their child’s development and the nurturing
environment they have provided for their child. Our goal as caring professionals should be to
join parents as allies in the systems of care for their children. Our present systems are too often
crisis-driven, deficit-oriented, and unwelcoming to parents. Many families, particularly those
who have a child with special needs, are often left feeling isolated and unsupported (Bowman et
al., 1994; Turnbull, Turnbull, & Blue-Banning. 1994). Our focus instead should be on
developing a system where providers are reaching out for stressed parents and where parents’
ethnic, religious, and lifestyle attributes are valued. For example, rather than treating a pregnant
teenager overtly or covertly as a failure, which will turn her away and mitigate our opportunity
for successful interaction with her, we could accept her pregnancy, point to the potential future
opportunity for her baby, and offer her our acceptance, understanding, and positively framed
services. When providers can offer the necessary support and modeling for parents to understand
their young child’s development and to enhance it, they can play a crucial role toward the success
of the family system.
 For the past several years, we have been working on the Touchpoints’ model (Brazelton,
Touchpoints 1992, Brazelton and Sparrow, Touchpoints 3 – 6, 2001). Touchpoints are periods,
during the first years of life during which children’s spurts in development result in disruption in
the family system. (Throughout life, there are, no doubt, similar developmental crises of
disorganization and reorganization that involve not solely the individual but those he or she is
intimately connected with as well.) The succession of touchpoints in a child’s development is
like a map that can be identified and anticipated by both parents and providers. Thirteen
touchpoints have been noted in the first three years, beginning in pregnancy."

A Quote from Janet Gonzalez-Mena.

“[P]art of being who you are has to do with feeling your feelings, which means you'll have a wide range of emotions--not just constant sunshiny happiness.” 

"The moment I decided to follow instead of lead, I discovered the joys of becoming part of a small child's world."