Maureen O'Brien, PhD, is a developmental psychologist whose professional expertise includes child development, parent support and education, and promotion of healthy parent-child relationships. As the mother of twin 7-year-old sons, she has a particular interest in early childhood and the unique parenting issues for families of twins and supertwins.
O'Brien is currently adjunct assistant professor of behavioral sciences at Bentley College in Waltham, Mass. She is the author, along with Sherill Tippins, of Watch Me Grow -- I?m One: Every Parent's Guide to the Enchanting 12- to 24-Month-Old (published by Harper Collins Press in Sept. 2000), the first in a series of three Watch Me Grow books. Besides writing and teaching, she consults with family-service agencies and especially enjoys leading workshops about the joys and challenges of childrearing.
O'Brien is the former director of the Touchpoints Project, a nationally renowned training program based at Children?s Hospital in Boston. During her five years there, she worked side-by-side with Touchpoints founder T. Berry Brazelton, MD, and held the position of research associate in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
O/Brien/s educational achievements include degrees in psychology/child development from Brown University , Temple University, and the University of Minnesota. She has been involved in research at these institutions and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Upon receiving her doctorate, she held a postdoctoral fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital in the area of family violence.