Brazelton on Parenting
Episode Descriptions
1.CHALLENGED KIDS
Two disparate developments in the treatment of special needs children are coming together to make today’s world more hopeful for kids with all kinds of challenges.On the one hand, technology is making extraordinary gains in providing tools to help children overcome their handicaps.The secret wish of every one of these brave kids – to be “just like others” – can now come more true than ever.At the same time, science is showing that the more we can help challenged kids enter into the mainstream community, the faster they progress.And now the technology is at hand to help this happen.
2.KIDS AND THE MEDIA
The traditional questions everyone asks are familiar: “How are children being affected by what they see on television?” or “Are they copying the violence they see on the screen?”While those questions are certainly valid, they remain largely unanswered.Parents must recognize that the world is a world of the media, and they must try to work with it to make it a positive force in their children’s development.
Special Guest:William Pollack, Ph.D., Co-Director of the Center for Men, Director of Continuing Education (Psychology) at McLean Hospital, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
3.SLEEP
Scientists are using cutting-edge brain imagery to gain new understandings of how children sleep.New discoveries are being made not only about normal sleep dynamics, but in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders as well.Parents will learn the proper way to put a baby to sleep, following guidelines established by the “Back to Sleep” campaign, in order to prevent deaths due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Special Guest: Evelyn Moore, Ph.D., President, National Black Child Development Institute
4.SAFETY
For all the advances in medicine and campaigns for public awareness, the world is still as dangerous as ever for our children.Injuries and death by accidental gunshots remain extremely high, and we now have to teach our children to mistrust every stranger.There is a whole new definition of the term “school safety.”Parents will learn first-hand about common accidents and what they can do to help avoid them.
Special Guest: Angela McKalide, Ph.D., Program Director of the National Safe Kids Campaign
5.TROUBLED KIDS
Some new names have entered our lexicon – shorthand for a phenomenon incomprehensible to most of us – like Columbine and Paducah.What are the reasons for this horrifying trend of kids as killers and what can we do about it?Even more important, how can parents tell if their three-year-old who is hitting his playmates, is just normally aggressive or harboring serious violent tendencies?
Special Guest: Joshua Sparrow, MD., Instructor of Psychiatry at the HarvardMedicalSchool
6.PREEMIES
Babies born at the edge of viability – usually around 24 weeks of gestation – have historically failed to make it even through the first few hours outside the womb.Advances in modern neonatal medicine have now increased survival time dramatically.What this has created is a high-tech Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, in which a high-stakes drama – the fight for a baby’s life – plays out over a period of weeks, and sometimes even longer.The results are not always victories.A child may be kept alive for months only to die suddenly in the hospital late one night, for no apparent reason.And if the baby does survive, it may do so only at the price of serious medical issues parents must deal with for the rest of their lives.
Special Guests: Ian Gross, MD., Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yale University School of Medicine, and Evelyn Thoman, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of Connecticut
7.GRANDPARENTS
The shift in our society to isolated nuclear families, which began in the fifties, is bearing bitter fruit today.Parents are recognizing that extended families are critical in providing the psychological support they and their children need.And economic realities today mean that grandparents have become a valuable resource in the care of our children.Another burgeoning trend is the number of grandparents who have become primary caregivers for their grandchildren.It is estimated that over three million families in this country consist of grandparent/grandchild only.The issue of how to handle a grandparent’s passing with your child will also be addressed.
Special Guest: Maria Trozzi, M.D., Director, Good Grief Program at BostonMedicalCenter
8.FATHERS
New research is showing that fathers are far more important to their children than we previously thought.For example, it’s been proven that fathers can actually have a positive effect on their child’s IQ, on the likelihood of their kids’ getting into trouble with the law, and even the stability of their child’s eventual marriage.It’s a fascinating look at today’s father, and what he can and does mean to his kids.
Special Guest: Kyle Pruett, M.D., Director, Yale’s ChildStudyCenter
9.DIVORCE
Traditionally, courts have focused on the divorcing husband and wife in making legal decisions, especially those involving custody and visitation – always tow of the most hotly contested issues.Today, however, there is a new recognition of the child’s needs in carving out divorce settlements.
Special Guest: Kyle Pruett, M.D., Director, Yale’s ChildStudyCenter
10.TOILET TRAINING
Statistics show that kids are being toilet trained later and later.In 1957, 92 percent of children were trained by 18 months.Today, that figure has plunged to less than 25 percent.Surprisingly, only 60 percent of kids are trained by three years.Why is this so, and what does it mean?Science has made significant progress in treating children who continue to have problems in the later nursery school years – progress that sheds new light on how every parent might best approach the often frustrating issue.
Special Guest: Leonard Rappaport, M.S., M.D., Associate Chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and Director of the Developmental and Learning Programs at Children’s Hospital, Boston
11.BIRTH
The new movement in birthing practices is “what’s old is new.”Many women are going the way of home birthing.It’s a growing trend, but still a small one.What is significant is the increase in the use of “doulas” or midwives within the walls of the highest-tech hospitals.The most advanced of the medical centers have redesigned their birthing units and opened their doors to professional midwives, who are often nurses themselves.Also addressed in the segment is post-partum depression and having a child late in life.
Special Guests: Elaine Weisberg, RN, Founder of Tender Loving Touch Program, and Rita Day, RN, Tender Loving Touch Program
12.TEEN PARENTS
Over 1,400 teenage girls become pregnant every day in this country.Two things that determine whether or not a teen mother will be successful in raising her child are: if she has the support of her family, and if she has the support of her school and community.
13.FOOD
The AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics reports that one in five children are overweight.Childhood obesity is on the increase, as are a host of other eating disorders.A shocking percentage of our child population is at risk.Parents will learn practical tips on how to manage their child’s weight.
Special Guest:Kelly Brownwell, Ph.D., Director, the YaleCenter for Behavioral Eating & Weight Disorders
14.THE NEW FAMILY
Over the past decade, the American family has changed almost beyond recognition.Gone are the days of our frontier roots, with extended families that offered support, and even survival.Today, we’re a nation of isolated nuclear families, unmarried parents and same-sex parents.But “different” doesn’t mean it can’t work.
Special Guest: Dr. Joy Brown, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
15.MULTIPLES
The increased use of fertility drugs has resulted in a sharp increase in the incidence of multiple births – not only twins, but triplets and quadruplets as well.With the news that a couple is about to have a doubly blessed event comes serious issues of health and development.Most multiples are born premature, and some suffer life-long medical problems and developmental delays.
Special Guest:Dr. Maureen O’Brien, Author, Assistant Professor, BentleyCollege
16.THE NEW PEDIATRICS
The world of pediatrics is changing at an incredible pace.The traditional pediatrician had a private family practice, and provided continual care for a child throughout his or her life.This image is rapidly being replaced by the cold, corporate medicine of managed care and group practice, in which a parent is lucky to see the same pediatrician twice.On the professional’s side, with increasing economic pressures, baby doctors have less and less time to treat the patient, usually only able to spend a few minutes per visit on narrowly focused medical issues.All of these factors combine to leave today’s young parents facing a vacuum of information and support.
Special Guest: Deborah Turiano, M.D., Developmental Pediatrician, ProfessionalCenter for Child Development, Andover, MA
17.ALL ABOUT GIRLS
Science is making remarkable discoveries about the biological links between sex and behavior.At the same time, society struggles to expand the definition of femininity to an ever-wider notion of what it means to be a girl.In the middle are our young female children, pulled apart by the conflicting pressures of biology and culture.They are also distressingly susceptible to eating disorders.Why is this so, and what can parents do to help their daughters grow into healthy and well-adjusted adults?
Special Guest:Dr. Joy Brown, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
18.KIDS IN THE ARTS
Nearly every parent has fantasized about being approached by a Hollywood director, begging to make their gorgeous little pride and joy a star – or at least they have wondered how they could get their baby’s face into a print ad or television commercial.Parents will get an inside look at what it takes to make it in the baby game.
19.CHILDCARE
From the new understandings of children and working family issues, to new grass roots initiatives aimed at fostering better programs, childcare is changing in leaps and bounds.America is significantly behind all the other industrialized nations in quality childcare.As a result, partnerships between business and community to create better childcare are being formed nationwide.The issues of choosing quality childcare, working with the childcare provider, facilitating the transition to nursery school and the need for after school care will be addressed.
Special Guest:Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder of Families & Work Institute
20.LANGUAGE
Until recently, the conventional wisdom for parents worried that their child wasn’t developing speech on time was to let the child go at their own pace, and intervene only when the problem became serious.Today, however, new research about how early language and speech development start, revealed by advancements in neuro-imaging that allow us to understand the process in whole new ways, means that our early detection and treatment will help a whole generation of our children.
Special Guest:Roberta Golinkoff, Professor and Researcher at the University of Delaware’s Language Development Lab;
Featured Guest:Suzanne Dixon, M.D., M.P.H, Expert in Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics
21.DISCIPLINE
Next to love, a solid set of limits is the greatest gift a parent can give to a child.The most effective discipline is not as punishment, but as teaching.And to teach, you have to know how a child learns.We take a look at a child’s learning capacity at each critical development stage, and discuss the best strategies for setting limits.It’s a unique take on discipline – one that will surprise and help parents with kids of all ages.
Special Guest:Nancy Samalin, Author
22.ALL ABOUT BOYS
Science has found fascinating differences between boys and girls – differences rooted at the genetic level.From the time at eight weeks in the womb when a flood of testosterone washes the fetus and determines that it will be “male,” biology exerts powerful control over how a boy develops.Problems unique to males will be discussed, such as the tendency toward Attention Deficit Disorder and behavioral problems in schools.
Special Guest: Kyle Pruett, M.D., Director of Yale’s ChildStudyCenter
23.LEARNING
The field of cognitive science offers some of the most exciting breakthroughs in child development today.Paradigms are taking dramatic shifts with two revolutionary discoveries:that children are learning much more, much earlier than anyone ever dreamed, and that the root of learning is also emotional, not just mental.
Special Guest:Robert Brooks, M.D., Specialist in Attention Deficit Disorder
24.PRESSURE
Our children are more stressed-out than ever.Kids are increasingly exhibiting symptoms of severe stress – from psychosomatic illnesses to underachievement in the classroom.Parents will learn appropriate tactics they may use during the first three years of their child’s life to help instill a love for learning, and how to help lessen stress during the later years.
Special Guest:David Elkind, M.D., TuftsUniversity
25.KIDS AND COMPUTERS
The ads are actually true – it has become a world without borders, the revolution being led by our children, most of whom have achieved some level of computer literacy, and many whose skills baffle us as parents.We take a look at what’s going on today with kids and computers, from chat rooms to Web pages to kids forming their own Internet companies.Also covered is the revolution in computer-assisted learning, and the question of whether or not the future really promises a “virtual classroom” for our children.
26.SIBLINGS
One of the issues most troublesome for parents is the topic of siblings.Parents feel they can’t win – if they have an only child, they worry they’re depriving that child.Those with more than one often find themselves in the losing role of referee, trying to keep their kids from killing each other.A sibling relationship is a complex issue, and to understand the inner dynamics we paint contrasting portraits.Also discussed is the effect of birth order on personality.
Special Guest:Meri Wallace, MSW, CSW, Director and Founder, HeightsCenter for Adult and Child Development
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