Welcome to The Child Development Unit of Children's Hospital Boston where, under the direction of Edward Tronick Ph.D, research and training is conducted regarding parenting and the development of young children. The goal of The Child Development Unit is to enhance the emotional, social and cognitive well-being of infants and children and their parents. The Unit not only works in conjunction with several related research and training programs but also produces clinical work that is fully integrated with its programs.

The Child Development Unit here at Children's has established a strong international reputation for its pioneering advances in the field of child development, parenting and infant-parent therapeutic programs. More specifically the Unit is recognized for studies done on the assessment of newborn neurological and behavioral functioning and the social-emotional development of healthy infants and their parents, among many more past and present studies.

Dr. Tronick's numerous studies have revolved around parent-child interactions and how these social and emotional exchanges, along with other external factors, affect the development and well-being of the children. For example, Dr. Tronick's Still-face paradigm transformed our understanding of young children's emotional capacities and coping of infants therefore exposing the effects of factors such as maternal depression and anxiety on infant social-emotional development. Findings such as these provide the stepping stone towards developing preventative and reparative measures for developmental dysfunction.

The Napa Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship & Certificate Program and the Touchpoints Training Program are two of the prominent research and training programs that the Child Development Unit is proud to be affiliated and work with.

We invite you to learn more about our Unit, team, and current research projects and more related information by exploring the menu links on the left.