October 2020
Learning About Behaviors that Adults Find Challenging: Listening to Educators
The United States has a preschool suspension and expulsion crisis. On average, more than 250 American children were suspended or expelled from preschool each day in 2016, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health. Black preschoolers are more than twice as likely to be suspended or expelled than other children. These early experiences have been shown to increase children's risk for academic failure, school dropout, unemployment, involvement with the criminal justice system, and incarceration.

To help tackle this crisis, Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC) is developing a new training to build early childhood professionals’ skills to understand and respond effectively to child behaviors they find challenging. To ensure our training is responsive to the field’s needs, we recently surveyed 299 providers from across the country to learn about the behaviors they find most challenging, their current strategies for addressing them, the barriers they face to responding effectively, and the resources they most need and use.

Survey highlights include:
  • 66% of respondents have 11+ years of child care experience
  • 64% of respondents reported stress when responding to a child whom they experience as having the most challenging behaviors
  • 21% of respondents have expelled a child from their program; the reasons they gave include:
  • Safety concerns for other children, 36%
  • Family refused to work with program in addressing behavior, 28%
  • Biting, 17%
  • Top barriers to responding effectively to challenging behavior:
  • The pressure to keep all of the children in my program safe, 64%
  • Having parent/family support to implement new strategies/information, 55%
  • Managing my own feelings and reactions about challenging behaviors, 35%
  • Life stressors that families are experiencing:
  • Poverty, 84%
  • Food and housing insecurity, 78%
  • Caring for family members with special needs, 72%
  • Domestic violence, 67%

BTC's new training will incorporate this end-user input to equip providers with skills to proactively address challenging behaviors before they become overwhelming. Add your voice to the conversation by taking the survey, and share your experiences and insights with BTC!
Honoring Ann Coleman Stadtler, DNP, RN, CPNP
We are deeply saddened by the loss of Ann Coleman Stadtler, DNP, RN, CPNP, who passed on Saturday, July 25, 2020. There are those among us here at BTC who had the distinct good fortune to have known and worked with Ann closely and for a long time, those here whose lives and work have also been touched by her in ways that they might not even realize, and many more in between, as well as far and wide.

And then there are the countless children and families whose lives have also benefited from Ann’s passionate dedication, whether that was because of her direct primary care as a pediatric nurse practitioner; her developmental, behavioral expertise in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital; her leadership at BTC as she trained or mentored thousands of practitioners worldwide; her teaching and implementation of the Newborn Behavioral Observations; or her teaching and writing directly to parents of young children.
Learning to Listen Returns October 14th!
BTC's Learning to Listen: Conversations for Change series returns this fall, featuring more leaders championing change! Join us for live chats with the guests featured in each episode!

With Live Spanish Translation
Parents, Children, and Transgender Identities
Wednesday, October 14
3-4 PM ET /12-1 PM PT

Transgender-rights advocates Johanna Olson and Aydin Olson-Kennedy will talk about children’s gender identity and how to provide gender affirmation to all children.
Fighting Immigration Policies that Tear Families Apart
Wednesday, October 28
3-4 PM ET /12-1 PM PT

Mayra Alvarez, CEO of the Children’s Partnership, will discuss current immigration policies, their harmful effects on children and families, and what we can all do to stop the violence.
Supporting Fathers Who Were Sexually Abused as Children
Wednesday, November 18
3-4 PM ET /12-1 PM PT

Hassan Daniel, founder of the Father Factory, will discuss how fathers with childhood histories of sexual abuse can be the fathers they want to be for their children.
Missed any of our spring webcasts or want to watch them again? Visit BTC's YouTube channel for these and other Learning to Listen webcasts.
Thank you to our generous sponsor!
Upcoming Webinars
Supporting Everyone’s Mental Health
This three-part webinar series offers strategies that family-facing providers can use in their work to honor everyone’s experiences, build resilience, and nurture self-care.

Webinar 1: Honoring Each Person’s Experience to Support Mental Health
Monday, October 19 @ 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT

Webinar 2: Building Resilience while Social Distancing: Parental Depression and Coping
Monday, October 26 @ 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT

Webinar 3: Nurturing the Nurturer: Self-care for Providers & Parents
Monday, November 2 @ 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT

Each webinar is 1.5 hours and leads to a certificate of participation. Register for each webinar individually or for the whole series. Price: $30/webinar or $75 for 3. 
Supporting Father Involvement and Co-Parenting
This webinar series examines and shares strategies, tools, and outcomes from the Supporting Father Involvement Program, an evidence-based research and intervention program that has been adopted in a wide range of diverse communities to enhance fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives and strengthen parents’ partnership with each other.

Participants will learn:
  • Why fathering and co-parenting is important for children’s development
  • How to expand the power of fathering and co-parenting alongside mothering
  • Strategies for encouraging fathers’ engagement in their children’s and family’s lives

Parent and Child Voices: The Importance of Fathering and Co-parenting
Tuesday, October 20, 2 PM ET / 11 PM PT

From “Second Shift” to “First Shift”: Supporting Fathers as Central to Family Life
Tuesday, November 17, 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT

With Live Spanish Translation
Virtual Service Delivery Webinar Series
Join us for a series of free webinars and an online learning community that are exploring the challenges and opportunities posed by virtual service delivery, and sharing strategies providers have found for building and sustaining strong relationships with families virtually. 

Our new set of six webinars begins October 8th! Each webinar is 1-hour long. Participants can register for the entire series or for individual webinars.

With live Spanish translation and closed captioning available 
Strengths-Based Family Engagement Returns November 9th!
Building relationships with families is one of the most important things that family-facing providers do. Yet, building collaborative, trusting relationships is not always easy. Research shows that using a strengths-based approach to family engagement supports the well-being of the family.

In this five-part webinar series, you will learn how to cultivate a strengths-based mindset in your work with families. Each webinar is 1.5 hours and leads to a certificate of participation. Register for each webinar individually or sign up for the whole series. Price: $30/webinar or $125 for all 5.
Exploring the Impact of COVID-19
Jayne Singer headshot
BTC's Director of Developmental and Relational Health, Jayne Singer, PhD, was a featured speaker at a recent webinar hosted by Boston Children’s Hospital and the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care that explored early childhood development, mental health, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on children, families, and the early care and education workforce.

Singer is also a clinical psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. She discussed how young children develop over time, and strategies adults can use to support young children and each other during the coronavirus pandemic. Watch the recording.
New Resources for the Field
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The Preventing and Responding to Domestic Violence toolkit offers resources to support parents and children with experiences of domestic violence. Providers can use the resources as a guide to talk with families about healthy relationships and domestic violence in a trauma-informed way.

Trauma and traumatic events can impact families and staff. The Understanding Trauma and Healing in Adults series includes five briefs that explore what trauma is, how we can help parents and children cope and heal, and how providers and programs can adopt and strengthen their trauma-informed practices.

Some topics are difficult to discuss with families, but doing so can strengthen relationships and build trust. Preparing for Challenging Conversations with Families offers six concrete strategies you can use to prepare for these discussions. It also offers strategies to support yourself and families as these conversations unfold.  
In Case You Missed It...
We're always sharing knowledge, resources, and research on Facebook! In case you missed it, here are some of the most popular things that have really engaged our community. Join the conversation today!
Brazelton Touchpoints Center
Stay Connected