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The ChildTrauma Academy Newsletters |
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The ChildTrauma Academy and its partners have always worked to put ideas into action. The translation of emerging neuroscience and child development research into practical practice and program elements is part of our core mission. Research and application are equally important as we work to improve the lives of children. Over the years, in consultation with various organizations and agencies, the CTA has seen the need to teach, train and support the various professionals and front line adults working with traumatized children. Ignorance about the impact of neglect and trauma leads to misunderstanding of the various problems these children exhibit in the home, classroom and with peers. Misunderstanding leads to ineffective interventions and frustration for both the child and the adult. Education, therefore, is a the heart of any successful systemic transformation. If we are going to make things better for children we must educate the individuals and the systems that live and work with children. We need to create developmentally-sensitive, trauma-informed systems. The challenge with training is what to teach and how to teach it. We have worked for years trying to address both of these issues. One important observation is that one time trainings that are not followed up with ongoing booster or reinforcement training tend to be ineffective. A second observation is that when training is relevant - clinically focused - it is more effective. From these observations, we have developed an ongoing, case-based training approach. In this newsletter we introduce two examples of the use of this approach. We appreciate the positive feedback we received from our previous Newsletters and we look forward to your comments on this Newsletter. We will continue to work hard to provide useful and timely information to help you continue to better understand and serve high risk children and their families. Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.
Over the last ten years an increase in the number of very
young children exhibiting aggressive, impulsive and delayed
development has been noted. More and more young children are
in out of home care. The combination has led to a dramatic
increase in demand for therapeutic pre-school services. Dr.
Rick Gaskill at the Sumner Mental Health Center in
Wellington, KS has been working with a therapeutic
pre-school program for years.
Many years ago, after a presentation by Dr. Perry in Wichita, Dr. Gaskill approached Dr. Perry about the potential to apply some of the principles of of neurodevelopment in their therapeutic preschool. From that time more than six years ago, Dr. Gaskill and Dr. Perry have been working on the development of this approach. Independent evaluation of this approach by researchers at the University of Kansas have demonstrated efficacy. Dr. Gaskill, Dr. Perry and the CTA are working with several partner individuals and organizations to export this approach to other settings and to programs working with older children. A key element of the application of a Neurosequential approach is teaching the staff to better understand some principles of brain development, organization and change. A combination of video, live training and ongoing staffings of children has helped this process. The ongoing, case-based training with the same set of staff over time allows the front-line workers to slowly build a sense of familiarity and comfort with this approach. As a complement to single time, multi-hour trainings these multi-time, single hour clinically-based trainings reinforce new learning and help solve specific clinical issues with the children being served.
Dr. Gizane Indart, a Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, is
the Executive Director of the Denver Children's Advocacy
Center. This wonderful resource in Denver serves thousands
of traumatized children each year. Over the years, Dr.
Indart and her colleagues have evolved a set of clinical
services which encorporate many of the principles of
assessment and intervention that are complement the
neurodevelopmental approach taken by the CTA.
Several years ago following some collaborative training, Dr. Indart and Dr. Perry discussed the possibility of more formalized collaborative program development and training efforts between the CTA and DCAC. In this last year, these discussions have come to fruition. The CTA and DCAC, in collaboration with other partners in Denver, have started an ongoing, case-based training project as a first concrete step towards a larger training collaborative between the CTA and its partners in Denver. Several ongoing trainings are planned and a wider Colorado training institute model is being planned. Stay tuned for more updates as this partnership evolves.
Dr. Gaskill is a ChildTrauma Fellow and the Clinical
Director at Sumner Mental Health Center in Wellington, KS.
He is also the Children's Services Coordinator for the
mental health center. Dr. Gaskill has worked in community
mental health for nearly 30 years. In his work with
children, Dr. Gaskill has developed numerous programs for
children and their parents; including child development
classes, parenting classes, child-parent relationship
training, attachment enhancement treatment groups,
therapeutic alternative schools, therapeutic preschools,
after school programs, therapeutic preschools, and juvenile
offender programs.
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