The Connected Child

I'm almost done reading The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis and David Cross (both PH.Ds) and I feel completely new in my ability to handle our future foster children! Heck, I feel completely capable of handling Caton now.

I'm sure it won't be quite as easy as the book makes it sound, but at least I'm armed with scripts. That's right, the book gives you the words to use and how to use them.

It also provides easy to understand insight into what children who have been in an orphanage or foster care or abused homes have gone through. But what I really love is the science behind it all! Talk of neurotransmitters and chemicals and hormones actually helps me build compassion as I learn to understand that their behavior (however bad it might be) is biological and instinctive. I can actually respect a child who has had to survive the unimaginable and be more patient with their social problems because of the new found knowledge I have from this book!

I didn't really know about sensory processing disorders until now. And while I admit they scare me, I feel equipped to help them out of it.

And that is the good news! All of this is correctible. Not quickly and not easily. And what these fancy pants doctors don't know is that we have Christ working to heal them on top of the super smart psychological advice, tips, tricks, games and scripts offered in the book!

I hope I can convince you all to pick up this book. It's fascinating even if you don't have children, but are ever around them. And if your child has ever sassed you, outsmarted you or controlled your environment then this stuff can help! But if you're adopting internationally or through the state system, then by all means, READ IT!

Below is the link to a blog/website about what these doctors do. There are CD's available and apparently seminars too. But the book is available at Barnes and Noble.

http://special-needs.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/the-hope-connection-part-1