I believe that children do the best they can. I work with children and their families to overcome obstacles that prevent kids from doing their best. Some obstacles are:
- Experience with a traumatic event that has left a child with difficulty regulating. She may over-react or be aggressive in interactions others perceive as nonthreatening. On the other hand, he may act bored or lacking energy. A child may have difficulty sleeping or exhibit abnormal toileting behaviors.
- Experience with multiple events in the care of multiple caregivers that compromises ability to succeed at home and school. Children who have had multiple placements as well as extended abuse or neglect often have difficulty in a variety of contexts such as home, school, boy/girl scouts, etc.
- Neurodevelopmental delays. Fine motor movement, language, gross motor, memory, or visual processing delays may make school and home life difficult. When school is exceptionally hard kids may act out in frustration. Kids who have had a history of abuse, neglect or prenatal alcohol exposure frequently have neurodevelopmental delays. (However, not every child with neurodevelopmental delays has been traumatized).
- Inadequate attachment to caregivers. Sometimes kids who experienced a lack of safety with their birth parents now have difficulty trusting their adoptive or foster parents. At other times a parent and child are not a “good fit” for each other because of individual personality characteristics or dispositions.
I will work with you to understand what is preventing your child from doing his or her best. We will work together to provide your child what he or she needs.
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