There is much I agree with in Dr. Perry’s book, The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog. But in the chapter I was reading today, he lands squarely on the evils of attachment therapy…and in specific…on holding. I bristled when I read this, because I think attachment therapists get a repeated bad rap. So many of them recognize the trauma our children have endured and realize the critical importance of attachment. So many of them are nothing short of brilliant when it comes reaching... more

Last summer, I drove with my van loaded with baby clothes and baby furniture across the United States, 1067 miles actually, to meet our new daughter. Her birth mother chose a closed adoption, so we weren’t invited to the birth, but the agency called a few hours after she was born. I couldn’t wait to meet her, so I drove straight through, almost 16 hours, and met her just before she was 24 hours old.

Her birth parents couldn’t release their parental rights until the third day, so she couldn’t be released from the hospital,... more

HELP! As I’m reading Dr. Perry’s intriguing accounts of traumatized children, each exhibiting different behaviors and symptoms, one message rings true. The children who were nurtured by an attentive caregiver as an infant, the children with consistent care, recovered much more quickly and completely from whatever trauma (abuse, injury, accident, medical procedures) than those who did not receive consistent, nurturing care.

What happens to infants matters SO much! For those of us parenting children from chaotic early childhoods,... more

Our adult daughter, whom we adopted at the age of nine, showed up last weekend at our teen son’s open house, but I didn’t know it until I saw her on our couch. She had failed to greet me upon her arrival, which didn’t surprise me, what did surprise me was that she showed up. You see she hasn’t been to our home since her angry and abrupt departure nine months ago when she turned 18.

She had a horrible childhood, or so I hear. Granted she was in trouble quite often and frequently had to hear me yell at her. She lost privileges on a routine basis before her behavior became stabilized through monthly visits to a psychiatrist, and various medications, when she was about 15. Apparently,... more

Our discussion at Sunday School yesterday veered slightly off topic onto whether children who die go to heaven, then on to exactly what is the age of accountability. My classmates brought up children with mental handicaps as having an extended period of time before they could be accountable for their actions. Of course none of them are living with children with developmental delays, but their point was well-made.

Yet, as I pondered this I was once again reminded that anything taken to an extreme is bound to fail. I read a comment to my... more

I know something else that could help to explain how Cho Seung-Hu developed into the totally detached cold-blooded killer he was last Monday. Nancy, over on Reactive Attachment Disorder blog is addressing it as well. And on the listserves of those parenting traumatized children, parents are speculating the way the parents of autistic children are speculating…could it be that Cho had attachment disorder?

Hmmm…the evidence isn’t there, yet. So the theory is just that, a theory. But the one big difference between attachment disorder or borderline personality disorder and other... more

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Ok, to recap, Drs. Purvis & Cross operate a camp for post-institutionalized traumatized children called “The Hope Connection” as part of their research for the Institute for Child Development at Texas Christian University.... more

Check out Part 1 Check out Part 2

The unique twist to the work that Dr. Purvis and Dr. Cross do at the is that they test neurotransmitter levels of all the Camp Hope campers (and their parents) before, during and after the day camp. To day, Dr. Purvis reports she has reviewed over 900 neurotransmitter tests on traumatized children. She has seen some pretty definite... more

I have just finished listing to a CD set of recordings from last year’s ATTACh conference; a day-long workshop entitled: Seeds of Hope: Promising Interventions for At-Risk Children. The CD order form is here.

The speakers, Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross are the developers of the Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Their research training and service are focused on special needs children who... more

The room was eerily quiet during our Sunday School lesson yesterday. I admit it was not what I expected either in our study of the fruit of the spirit. We were wrapping up fruit # 1 – Love. The video series focused on our “fear of love” from the standpoint of rejection.

Now being the mom of a child who has healed significantly from attachment disorder, I’m all over this rejection business. I’m all over this fear of love thought process. The presenter (Beth Moore for those of you looking for an awesome... more