Lessons Learned: New Trauma on Top of Old
by: Craig Peterson “Stop saying you understand. You don’t. You have no idea how I feel.” My daughter’s words stopped me in my tracks. Had I assumed too much? Had I overreached and appeared insensitive? Did I re-traumatize her in the process? Probably shades of all three. You see, my daughter is black. I’m white. […]
Adoptive Parents ARE Biological Parents
— By Julie Beem I had the incredible honor to interview Dr. Dan Siegel a couple of days ago in a webinar that will soon be released on ATN’s Learning Center. We did this in conjunction with Echo Parenting and Education from California. If you have not had the privilege to hear Dr. Siegel speak […]
Silly Ignorant Me: What I Thought My Child Heard
by: Craig Peterson When my mother and father spoke, I responded. So did my five siblings. That’s all we knew. I never gave the dynamic much thought until raising children of my own. You see, all six are adopted. Unfortunately, none responded to me like I did with my parents. Not even close. Didn’t my […]
What is Strange?
by: Kelly Killian You’re going to find this strange, but my husband and I like watching crime shows. We like learning about the psychological aspects of what makes criminals tick. It was during one of these shows that we had an “AH HA” moment about our kids. In the show, Criminal Minds, Agent Hotchner (played […]
FASD and RAD — “Cannot vs. Will Not”
by: Craig Peterson Early childhood trauma. Complex behaviors. The two often go hand in hand as parents and professionals will attest. Although they create enormous challenges for families, receiving an accurate mental health diagnosis for a child can be another challenge altogether. Connecting the dots isn’t always easy. When adopting my three first children – […]
Tuesday Toolbox — Bedtime and Sleep Issues
This post originally ran as the second post in a two part series last October. We are re-running it because so many of our traumatized children have sleep issues (including my youngest daughter, who routinely stays up past her mom’s bedtime!). Jennie’s post has wonderful and practical information to help parents, especially in these challenging […]
Changing Rehoming Laws Isn’t the Answer
by: Julie Beem What do the stories of Arkansas Rep. Harris and his wife, Torry Hansen (who returned her son to Russia in 2010), and the families in last year’s Reuters report on rehoming have in common? All were adoptive parents who found they could no longer safely parent their children in their homes. While […]
Representative Harris and the “Rehoming” Controversy
Both social media and the press have been peppered with stories about Arkansas State Representative Justin Harris, whose adopted little girl was sadly sexually assaulted by someone the Harris family placed her with after they found themselves unable to handle the challenges of parenting her. Many of the news stories have vilified Representative Harris — […]
The Tide
by: Melissa Sadin The Tide “The tide recedes but leaves behind bright seashells on the shore. The music stops, and yet it echoes on in sweet refrains. For every joy that passes, something beautiful remains.” That was a poem that was on a wooden wall hanging in my childhood home. I had occasion to recall […]
Does This “In Your Face” Video Help Children with RAD?
by: Julie Beem While the “dress color” controversy and video of two escaped llamas is going viral with the general public, this video is definitely making the rounds on Facebook and in the blogsphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ypmGTGGN7A Whenever ATN finds something that can be useful to parents of traumatized children and to those who have RAD and […]