The Irreducible Needs of Children

Thomas Berry Brazelton Jr. was born in Waco, Texas on May 10, 1918. He received a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1940 and a medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1943. He took his pediatric training at Boston Children's Hospital in 1947 and went on to study child psychiatry at Massachusetts General and the James Jackson Putnam Children's Center. In 1950, he began a private practice in pediatrics and was an instructor at Harvard Medical School. He also went on to teach at Brown University.

He revolutionized people's understanding of how children develop psychologically. He wrote around 40 books including Infants and Mothers: Differences in Development, wrote a column in Family Circle magazine, and was the host of the show What Every Baby Knows, which ran for 12 years. He received the World of Children Award for his achievements in child advocacy in 2002 and the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2013. His memoir, Learning to Listen: A Life Caring for Children, was published in 2013. He died on March 13, 2018 at the age of 99.

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