T. Berry Brazelton

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T. Berry Brazelton (2007)

Thomas Berry Brazelton (born May 10, 1918 in Waco , Texas , † March 13, 2018 in Barnstable , Massachusetts ) was an American pediatrician . He was a pioneer in the study of newborn behavior and has published many books on child development and parenting . After Benjamin Spock , Brazelton is considered one of the most influential experts in infant care and education in the United States .

life and work

Brazelton was the son of Thomas Berry Brazelton and Pauline Brazelton, b. Battle. After attending Episcopal High School , a prep school in Alexandria , Virginia, he went to Princeton University to complete a medical prep course, which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1940. He then went to New York City to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University to study medicine. He obtained his doctorate in 1943. This was followed by an internship at Roosevelt Hospital. He was then drafted into the United States Navy Reserve for a year of military service.

Brazelton completed his professional training (residency) in 1945 at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and moved to the Boston Children's Hospital in 1947 , where he further specialized in pediatrics. During this time he discovered that his interest was not in diseases, but in the normal development of the child. To pursue this interest, he moved to the Putnam Children's Center in Roxbury , Massachusetts as a psychiatrist .

In 1950, Brazelton set up his own pediatric practice in Cambridge , Massachusetts. In 1951 he was appointed lecturer at Harvard Medical School . At the same time he began his research, which focused on the development of early childhood perception.

In 1973, Brazelton and a team of colleagues developed the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), a measuring instrument for the neurological assessment of newborns (revised in 1984). The scale allowed neonatologists and paediatricians to identify indications of possible future developmental problems as early as the first days of a child's life.

The famous still-face experiments (experiments with an expressionless face) emerged from the collaboration with Edward Tronick . The reactions of young children to interrupting and resuming a loving, face-to-face situation between caregiver and child were examined.

As an expert, Brazelton did political lobbying to promote family-friendly legislation (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993) and support for children growing up in poverty. He wrote numerous books and had his own television show, What Every Baby Knows from 1983 to 1995 , which won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1994 . His main concern as a media person and as a writer of advisory literature was to help parents understand their children as individuals across the entire spectrum of different child personalities and different child behaviors. In contrast to many other educational guides of the time, Brazelton's books were not evangelical , but rational.

Brazelton married Christina Lowell in 1949, with whom he had four children and who died in 2015. He lived in Massachusetts. In March 2018, Brazelton died two months before he would turn 100 at his Barnstable, Massachusetts home.

Award

2012 - Presidential Citizens Medal

Publications (selection)

  • Infants and mothers: Differences in development . Delacorte, New York 1969 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
German: Baby's First Year of Life: Differences in Mental and Physical Development: A Guide for Young Parents . Maier, Ravensburg 1970.
  • Toddlers and parents: a declaration of independence . Delacorte, New York 1974 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
    German: Our child becomes independent. The second and third year of life . dtv, Munich 1983.
  • Doctor and child . Delacorte, New York 1976.
  • Working and caring . Alfred Knopf, Woburn, MA 1983 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
    German: What about the children? Job and child . Piper, Munich 1985.
  • What every baby knows . Ballantine, New York 1987.
    German: The completely normal catastrophes: the healthy and the sick child in the first years of life . Piper, Munich 1987.
  • On becoming a family . Dell, New York 1981.
  • Families: Crisis and caring . Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1989.
  • with Bertrand Cramer: The earliest relationship: parents, infants, and the drama of early attachment . Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA 1990.
  • Touchpoints: Your Child's Emotional and Behavioral Development . Addison-Wesley, Reading (Massachusetts) 1992.
  • with Stanley Greenspan: The irreducible needs of children: what every child must have to grow, learn, and florish . Perseus, Cambridge, MA 2000.
    German: The seven basic needs of children: what every child needs in order to grow up healthy, learn well and be happy . Beltz, Weinheim, Basel 2002.
  • Sleep. The Brazelton Way. Advice from America's favorite pediatrician . Perseus, Reading, MA; Oxford 2003.
    German: This is how my child sleeps all night. The successful Dr. Brazelton method . Knaur, Munich 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e J. Kevin Nugent: T. Berry Brazelton. In: Enzyclopaedia Britannica. March 14, 2018, accessed March 15, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Thomas Berry Brazelton Biography (1918–). In: faqs.org. Accessed March 15, 2018 .
  3. ↑ engl. Article with famous sample video of the experiment , Washington Post, September 16, 2013
  4. ↑ Carol Garhart Mooney: Theories of Attachment: An Introduction to Bowlby, Ainsworth, Gerber, Brazelton, Kennell, and Klaus . Redleaf Press, St. Paul, MN 2010, ISBN 978-1-933653-38-9 , pp. 49 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ↑ Joseph P. Kahn: Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, child care expert and pediatrician, dies at 99. In: The Boston Globe . March 13, 2018, accessed March 15, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Brazelton, T. Berry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brazelton, Thomas Berry Brazelton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pediatrician
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Waco , Texas
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 2018
Place of death Barnstable , Massachusetts