This week, another group of service providers in Durham completed Touchpoints Individual Level Training, making them the 5th cohort to be trained as part of the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative. This cohort is made up entirely of Durham Early Head Start teachers. This is the first time a training has been conducted in Durham for providers from a single agency.
The previous training cohorts have been comprised of providers from different agencies across the community and across disciplines. In fact, there are now several organizations that have had 100% of their staff complete Touchpoints training. Durham Early Head Start is one such organization, and the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative is excited to extend this opportunity to its teachers as well.
The Durham Touchpoints Collaborative is a certified Touchpoints community site, now with two complete training teams. This allows the Touchpoints Collaborative to provide even more training for additional service providers, furthering the reach of the Touchpoints approach through our community and enhancing how professionals engage with each other as well as with the families they serve.
Touchpoints is an evidence-based theory of child development based on the work of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton that is used by providers across disciplines (e.g. pediatrics, home visiting, early education). Once implemented by providers, this method helps parents understand regressions that accompany their children’s developmental spurts, which occur often during the first years of life. The Touchpoints approach gives providers tools to support parents during these challenging times and to strengthen the parent-child relationship. Touchpoints also helps to build relationships among providers to create a common language when working with families.
For more information about the Durham Touchpoints Collaborative, please contact Paulette Stephens, Touchpoints Program Coordinator from Durham’s Partnership for Children.
