Thomas Brazelton

Thomas Berry Brazelton was born May 10th, 1918 in Waco, Texas. Hospitals throughout the world use the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. He is a pediatrician and an author but many parents know him as the host of cable television program What Every Baby Knows and as the of a syndicated newspaper colunm.

Theory
Brazelton found dozens of touchpoints, predictable developmental leaps before a new skill, in a babies first year and three to four in each following year. Things like sensory overload can cause a child to be fussy, curiosity makes them want to know more, stranger awareness at six months old and seperation anxiety. He learned that four through six year olds reacted with the wider world.

Impact On Education
He has opened children hospitals that have helped mobinize communities around children and families in order to bring relationships back to children and families back to healthcare.

Interesting Facts
He was known as the "baby whisperer".

He has written books about his work. He is the founder of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Children’s Hospital Boston.

Brazelton was president of the Society for Research in Child Development.