Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, renowned pediatrician and early childhood expert, television host and author, will be on the Cornell to deliver two presentations on Monday, Oct. 13, and Tuesday, Oct. 14.

In the 7 p.m., Oct. 13 presentation, "Stresses and Supports for Families in the 90's, "which is geared for parents and care-givers and to be given in Bailey Hall, Brazelton -- host of the television program "What Every Baby Knows" and author of Families: Crisis and Caring, andTouchpoints -- will offer insights on the challenges facing today's families and the effects they have on children. He will discuss such stresses as divorce, two working parents, disappearance of the extended family, unclear cultural values, and inadequate substitute care when both parents work, and he will offer several solutions. In addition, he will outline the importance of parent-child attachment for developing healthy self-esteem in both parent and child.

On Oct. 14 in David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall, Brazelton will participate in an "Early Childhood Professional Seminar" geared for professionals from health, education, social work and early childhood fields. Brazelton will speak on "Touchpoints in Development: A Model for Early Intervention"; Edward Tronick, a developmental psychologist and chief of the Child Development Unit and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, will address "Emotional Competence in Young Children"; Maria Trozzi, an expert on bereaved children and families, director and co-founder of the Good Grief Program at Boston Medical Center, will discuss "Helping Children Cope with Stressful Life Events"; and Edward Zigler, the Sterling Professor of Psychology at Yale University and member of the National Planning and Steering Committee of Head Start, will lecture on "Community Strategies for Supporting Young Children and Their Families."

Both programs are presented by the Day Care and Child Development Council of Tompkins County and the Cornell Early Childhood Program. Local sponsors include the United Way of Tompkins County, Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Buttermilk Falls Pediatrics and Northeast Pediatrics.

"With Brazelton's 'touchpoints' approach, he recognizes that early development has many dimensions -- motor, cognitive, social, emotional -- and that developmental progress occurs at different rates along those dimensions," said Moncrieff Cochran, Cornell professor of human development and director of the Cornell Early Childhood Program (CECP), a primary sponsor of the event. CECP emphasizes family supports and early intervention as crucial to preventing family stress and dysfunction and promoting healthy families and communities.

Cochran said that Brazelton's approach is in keeping with the mission of CECP. "Like the 'touchpoints' approach, we share a strongly developmental orientation toward young children. We are especially pleased to see this orientation promoted by Brazelton, a pediatrician, because many health professionals working with young children continue to limit their focus to physical illness.

"Dr. Brazelton understands that the demands of parenting are universal; all parents experience stress at one point or another and deserve to be supported. CECP shares this appreciation for the importance of community supports and the universality of parental need," Cochran said. He predicts that parents will leave Oct. 13 evening's presentation feeling more powerful in their parenting roles and have a stronger appreciation for why the time they spend with their children is so vitally important.

Cochran said that professionals should leave the Oct. 14 professional day, "with a clearer understanding of how development in individual children is shaped by forces in the large community, and what local communities can do to support the efforts of all parents to meet the developmental needs of their children."

Tickets to the Oct. 13 event are $10 and available at Cornell's Work and Family Services,

130 Day Hall, the Day Care and Child Development Council, Cat's Pajamas, Alphabet Soup and Creative Kids. For scholarship information and free bus shuttles to the talk, call the Day Care Council at (607) 273-6590.

For more information or to register for the professional day, call the Day Care Council at (607) 273-6590 before Oct. 3.