Perspectives on Challenged Family Building

Ellen is the 14-year-old birth child of Sharon and Todd. She is one of three birth children and three children by adoption. Ellen attended therapy with her mother and one of her brothers by adoption, Kenny. During therapy, Kenny described how he continued to miss his birthmother. He also discussed how the loss of his [...]

Welcome to part two of our post about “value competency.” As Part One explained, trauma causes children to develop values that are often at discord with those of the adoptive family. Thus, “value competency” is the ability to live—long-term—with children who, due to their traumatic histories, have a different set of values than the adoptive [...]

Early speech and language leads to the development of our literacy skills—the ability to read and write. In school, children with communication disorders are more likely to struggle with literacy skills. They often perform poorly in school, have reading problems and have difficulty understanding and expressing language.

In practice as a therapist, it is common to [...]