Enhancing early care provider’s capacity for building early relationships with families and their children: Touchpoints-informed practice

Abstract

This chapter describes Touchpoints-informed practice (TIP), an intervention model that is delivered through an embedded professional development and reflective practice initiative. Its purpose is twofold: the first component of TIP gives early care professionals in childcare, home visiting, health, and social services the relational strategies to successfully engage with families. The second component of TIP offers a critical understanding of the dynamic, cyclical processes that frame the young child’s developmental growth. Together, these two components give professionals the basic practice skills to work with families on behalf of their children and a view of child behavior that makes meaning of children’s developmental work during the early years. Data on professional developmental and relational knowledge and skills and parent perceptions of their relationship with their child are presented through both descriptive and quasi-experimental studies of Touchpoints. Scale-up of the intervention and associated challenges are discussed with particular attention to work with infants and toddlers.