What could possibly bring someone back to the surface after such a deep dive?
A great read, that's what.
I'm going to post a review here that's basically stolen from a report I had to do on the book for our local Children's Aid Society. Though I don't endorse every phrase in the book, I heartily endorse, encourage and beg you to read it.
The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog,In, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Bruce Perry, along with Maia Szalavitz, uses clinical examples to teach about loss, attachment, love and healing. He attempts to deconstruct the myth that children just “bounce back” from trauma, but they can be trained to grow back. He shows how there can be hope for even terrible beginnings, if acted upon quickly.
This book teaches so much about the developing brain and the way it works. He talks about rhythms and how children who have not been nurtured as infants do not learn to read social cues later on. He explains that the best way to build up neural pathways that never developed is in giving children as many meaningful relationships as possible. The body reacts to stress in ways that makes a child appear to have any of a number of “syndromes” or “disorders”. There is so much more too!
The whole last chapter is full of useful suggestions, from strengthening our own children so they become nurturing parents themselves, to ways to encourage our schools and government to make changes to the way we raise children.
The longer we foster, the more we are thrilled to be a part of this, but the more we wish we could do more, lobbying, publicity, creating change in parenting classes, etc. I don’t know what to do about this right now. Can we start a snowball that grows into something huge?
I absolutely recommend this book to everyone… to everyone who wants children, has children, or knows children… or criticizes parents but has no children of their own! Or doctors…or politicians…or anyone who thinks things can and should change.
