Does your child’s teacher know about this book?

We asked Veronica, a Family Practitioner at Adopt South West, to review a book she has found helpful. Although this book is written for teachers, it can also show parents invaluable ways of understanding and healing the hurts of our children.

Working with Relational Trauma in Schools – an educator’s guide to using Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) By Kim S Golding, Sian Phillips, Louise Michelle Bomber

“Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), with its base in Dan Hughes’ theories of Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (PACE), is an intervention designed for children and young people who have experienced trauma and disrupted attachments. This book shows how schools can use DDP to help adopted children learn emotional regulation through healthy connections with others.

Highly readable, the book is full of ideas for helping teachers understand children who dysregulate easily, who reject relationships and find that education is just one struggle too many. Ultimately this is a book showing teachers how to overcome the fears of emotionally hurt children so they can become capable of dealing with relationships and the world of learning. Lots of examples are given to illustrate the guiding principles and there’s a useful chapter of FAQs.

“Plenty of practical examples are given showing how teachers can work with children having tantrums and meltdowns, or who are shut down and hard to reach. There are some useful (and brief!) passages explaining the theories behind PACE and DDP, but the focus of the book is on practical ways to build connections that will help our children manage and recover from their developmental trauma. Written for teachers, the book can also show parents invaluable ways of understanding and healing the hurts of our children.

“At £21 this book isn’t cheap, but if it helps our education system understand our children better it is truly a bargain. Highly recommended.”