Dr. Jayne Singer honored with the T. Berry Brazelton Award for Innovation

Jayne Singer Ph.D. IECMH-E® has been honored by the Boston Children’s Hospital, Division of Developmental Medicine with the T. Berry Brazelton Award for Innovation.  The award is given for “key advances in innovation, creativity in practice, scientifically or administratively, creation of new systems to solve problems, scientific advances, program development, and impact”.  

Jayne Singer is an internationally recognized authority on the interface between research, practice and public policy, with particular emphasis on infant and family mental health theory, research, assessment, and intervention.  Jayne’s innovative relationship-based therapeutic intervention approaches, in particular her work with the NBO, have made a singularly unique contribution to our deepest understanding of the fabric and forces of the world of early relationships, which has informed practice and policy across the world.   Above all, Jayne believes that the foundations of sound mental health in life are built during the first years of life and that brain and biological pathways during this critical period affect physical and mental health for the rest of our lives.

This award acknowledges the breadth and depth of Jayne’s contributions to our work with infant and families, which embody Berry Brazelton’s legacy. Jayne began working with Dr. Brazelton in the Early Childhood Program (ECP) in 1989, the clinic associated with the Child Development Unit at Boston Children’s Hospital and saw patients collaboratively with him and other team members.  She went on to play a key role in the development and implementation of the Brazelton Touchpoints Approach from the beginning and today is Director of Clinical Training at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center’s (BTC).

As core faculty of the Brazelton Institute, Jayne has directly trained and mentored hundreds of practitioners locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally in the application of the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system in diverse treatment settings including primary pediatric care, infant mental health promotion/prevention/intervention, home visiting, early intervention, and community health work among other disciplines.  Jayne spearheaded the development of, and advocacy for the clinical application of the NBO, in the treatment of newborns after prenatal substance exposure, postnatal withdrawal syndrome, and their families in substance use disorder recovery.  Jayne’s work as an NBO practitioner has resulted in expansion of the use of the NBO into Boston Children’s Hospital patient care by co-developing such innovations as the inpatient neurodevelopmental services for children with congenital heart disease; mentoring trainees and staff clinicians in its application.  Dr. Singer also serves as a mentor to NBO trainers in training; for example, training NIDCAP practitioners in the incorporation of the NBO into developmental care.  Jayne is also an active contributing member of the Newborn Behavior International community and has presented to our network as part of the Leaders from the Field Webinar series - sharing NBO case-based teaching examples of theory into practice

In sum, we congratulate Jayne on being honored with the T. Berry Brazelton Award for Innovation by the Boston Children’s Hospital, Division of Developmental Medicine.  On the basis of her leadership and her multiple scientific and clinical accomplishments, Jayne is unquestionably one of the most accomplished figures in the field of infant, early childhood and family mental health.  We invite you to join us in offering our congratulations to Jayne!