Erma Brenner has long been involved in the field of child development and has done extensive work with children in a variety of settings, including hospitals and schools. She developed her “Small House” program at Albert Einstein in the child psychiatry department and developed it further at Cornell Westchester's child psychiatry unit. For some time she has been an advisor to schools that have begun to use her approach. She has also written a book for the general public entitled A New Baby! A New Life!, which received the 1974 Christopher Award.