The Attachment Yardstick
by: Melissa Sadin Typically, our children’s lives are measured by events such as birthdays, grades in school, graduation, etc. Recently, however, it occurred to me that there are other events by which I measure my son’s growth. Oh sure, I’m proud of him when he does well in sports, gets a good grade in school, […]
What Now? My Child is Struggling at School
by: Craig Peterson Looking back to my elementary school years, I was lucky. Learning came easy. Fast forward 30 years. My children were struggling at school. When a flyer came home about a school workshop, I jumped at the chance to gain additional knowledge. Several weeks later I encountered a roomful of overwhelmed mothers. Within […]
Back to School with Traumatized Students: What Do We Tell New Teachers?
By: Jen Alexander, MA, NCC, RPT It’s back to school time for all of us. It can be overwhelming to think about what to tell this year’s teachers about our children. What’s too much? What’s too little? The answers, of course, are different for everyone, but here are some ideas to think about sharing. Educators […]
Perseverance & Endurance – Qualities of a Champion Runner … and His Adoptive Dad
by: Julie Beem If you read one story about adoption today – this is the one. Your social media feed may be full of news about attachment & trauma, Fetal Alcohol, and PTSD, but don’t miss this article. I can tell you now this article’s not going to be what you expect. But then again, […]
Tuesday Toolbox — The Landing Pad
by: Jane Samuel Our youngest, now age 12, like many children of trauma, wants to have all her ducks in a row and know what is coming next. She hates getting caught off guard – “I forgot that we had P.E. today and I didn’t have my shoes!!” So schedules and planning work very well […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Tuesday Toolbox — Silliness Builds a Bridge
by: Gari Lister My middle daughter has started to follow in her older sister’s footsteps and taken to hiding in her room. Oh, she’s not literally hiding — she’s “cleaning” it or she’s “reading”. But it takes hours, doesn’t seem to make an enormous difference in the cleanliness of the room or the number of […]