Joyce E. Nuner, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Baylor University Barbara B. Crosby, MS, Ed.S

1. How to Really, Really, Connect with Families! Using the Touchpoints Approach in a Lab School Setting Joyce E. Nuner, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Baylor University Barbara B. Crosby, MS, Ed.S Director of Piper Center for Family Studies and Child Development, Baylor University Mindy May, MS Project Director, Brazelton Touchpoints Center

2. "When we strengthen families, we ultimately strengthen the community. Our goal is that parents everywhere work with supportive providers, feel confident in their parenting role, and form strong, resilient attachments with their children. To help achieve this, providers must be responsive to parents, knowledgeable about child development, and eager to see every parent succeed." -T Berry Brazelton, MD

3. What Is Touchpoints? • A practical approach • for enhancing the competence of parents • for 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

4. A System Model • Assumes that each member of the system is in balance with each other member. • If there is a stress on the system, each member must adjust to the stress. • As a result, stress becomes an opportunity for learning. • If a provider wants the system to succeed, she or he must become an equal member of the system.

5. What is a Touchpoint? • Children develop their skills in many different areas at the same time. • A sudden burst in one area of development and “regress” or backslide in another area • Bursts can disorganize children’s feelings and actions • Can disrupt caregiving routines, such as feeding and sleeping

6. Touchpoints • Prenatal – The Ideal Baby • Newborn – The Real Baby • 3 Weeks – The Energy Sink • 6-8 Weeks – The Rewarding Baby • 4 Months – Looking Outward • 7 Months – Up at Night • 9 Months – The Pointer • 12 Months – The Walker • 15 Months – The Clinger • 18 Months – Rebel with a Cause • 2 Years – Getting to “No!” • 3 Years – “Why?”

7. Touchpoints Guiding Principles • Value passion wherever you find it • Look for opportunities to support mastery • Value disorganization and vulnerability as an opportunity

8. Parent Assumptions • The parent is the expert on his/her child • All parents want to do well by their child • All parents have ambivalent feelings

9. Practitioner Assumptions • Each practitioner is the expert within the context of his/her practice setting • Practitioners need support and respect of the kind we are asking them to give to parents

10. Touchpoints in ECE • Positive for parents and providers ECE settings • Parentsreport: • that providers are more supportive of parent expertise • better quality and more collaborative relationships with their providers • increased confidence in their providers • less stress in general, and more stable stress levels over time

11. Touchpoints with our Parents • Our beliefs • Our behaviors • Everyday interactions • Parent/teacher conferences • Written communication • Parent workshops

12. Touchpoints with our Teachers

15. Touchpointswith our CFS Students • Planting a seed with students • University students see teachers practicing Touchpoints • Concepts are introduced through course work • This is an area that we are developing

16. A Community Collaboration • A desire to come together as a network of providers • A desire to interact with families consistently • A desire to communicate with families consistently • A desire to create a community within a community

17. PartnersThe coalition is comprised of professionals from early care and education, health and medical care, faith-based settings, mental and physical health and disability services, college and university programs, clinical counseling settings, and educational settings. Keith Warren, Private Practice Klaras Children’s Center ECI Little People’s Learning Center McLennan Community College Child Development Center Department of Child Development Rapoport Academy TalithaKoum Waco Foundation WIC Waco ISD • Avance • Child Care Services • Baylor University • FCS • Piper Center • EOAC Headstart • ESC Region 12 • Heart of Texas Workforce Board • Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center • Little Cougar, Inc

18. The Waco Touchpoints Coalition • Our training team conducts a minimum of 2 trainings a year • Engage in reflective practice • Research • Work to make Touchpoints visible in our community • Quarterly coalition meetings • Coalition Newsletter • 141 trained Our training team