There is hope for children who have been traumatized and you can learn a lot about neuropshchology along the way….

I first learned about Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, during a COVID stress management webinar for healthcare professionals hosted by one of the universities where I teach. His masterful ability to explain complex neuroscience concepts in ways that I could understand and immediately apply was remarkable. I immediately logged onto Amazon and bought all his books. In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog he and his co-author Maia Szalavitz share powerful neuropsychology lessons in language that we can all understand.

Here’s an example, “Throughout history, while some humans have been our best friends and kept us safe, others have been or worst enemies. The major predators of human beings are other human beings. Our stress response systems, therefore, are closely interconnected with the systems that read and respond to human social cues. As a result, we are very sensitive to expressions, gestures, and the moods of others. We interpret threat and learn to handle stress by watching those around us. We even have special cells in our brains that fire, not when we move or express emotions, when we see others do so. Human social life is built on this ability to “reflect” each other and respond to those reflections, with both positive and negative results. For example, if you are feeling great and go to work where your supervisor is in a vile mood, soon you will probably feel lousy too. If a teacher become angry or frustrated, the children in their classroom may begin to misbehave, reflecting the powerful emotion being expressed by the teacher. To calm a frightened child, you must first calm yourself.” 

These lessons are woven through the stories of severely traumatized children that he as his team have cared for. They are heart shattering and deeply informative. The chapter about caring for the children that survived the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas just before it burned to the ground killing 76 was particularly captivating.  Parents, teachers, therapists, and healthcare professionals all have much to gain from this wonderful book. It’s not as emotionally difficult to read as you might think. I highly recommend it.