Living the theory

This week's #WASO theme invites us to write about challenges, positives or something that's worked really well for your family. It's a good one, as it's pushed me into writing a post that I've been wanting to write for a long time, but which I've been putting off because it's a big one and needs quite a bit of time and mental engery. I've referenced some training we attended recently in a couple of previous posts and haven't said much more than that. I wasn't meaning to be cryptic, I just didn't have the time at that moment to write too much about the specifics. And because it's something quite different to anything I've done before, I didn't want to mention it without being able to do it justice. So here it is... The Great Behaviour Breakdown, which is the cornerstone of pretty much everything we're trying to put in place at home at the moment. Rewind nine months. Little and Tiny had just moved in. We had the typical 'h...

I am ten pages in to Dan Hughes's book Building the Bonds of Attachment  and I can already tell that it's going to be a very useful read. It's not the first time I've come across his description of 'developemental trauma', but as with so many things, re-reading it with fresh eyes (or rather pretty tired and jaded eyes!) now that we've had the best part of a year to get to know our children brought home to me how much it currently applies to one of the little people in our care; so much so that I made my partner stop what she was doing and listen while I read it aloud. I've read a few things lately - in other blog posts or on various Facebook groups I follow - about attachment and how attachment difficulties are often (mis)used as a catch-all term to explain away any and all problems adopted children face, when in fact attachment problems are a symptom of the wider difficulty of developmental trauma rather than being a cause in their own right. I coul...