TCU Child Development in China

by: Ashley West

Half way across the world stands a big, beautiful, blue building filled with some of the most precious kids. (more…)

TBRI® Animate: Attachment

We are thrilled to introduce our newest video resource, a TBRI® Animate about Attachment!

Dr. David Cross narrates this three-minute video which explores the importance of the attachment bond between children and their caregivers. (more…)

Family Separation and Trauma

The Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development strives to help children suffering from the effects of early trauma, abuse, and/or neglect. Research tells us these experiences of early harm make children vulnerable to a host of lifelong challenges from behavioral problems to mental illness and chronic health problems.

As developmental psychologists, we are painfully aware of the likely outcomes for the nearly 2,000 children who have been separated from their families at our country’s borders since April of this year. Research has demonstrated time and time again that prolonged separation between child and caregiver results in relational trauma, which affects all aspects of development, including brain development to social, emotional, and cognitive development.

The crux of our work is the research-backed, evidence-based fact that children need a trusted caregiver during times of distress. Without a trusted caregiver to meet their emotional needs, the predicted outcome for these children is dire. While we know that holistic, trauma-informed interventions can help these children heal, the best solution is to stop trauma before intervention is necessary.

We know that the effects of trauma ripple throughout the lifespan. Because we know better, we must do better.

Talking TBRI® 101 with Dr. David Cross

by: Emmelie Pickett

We’ve had an exciting week here at the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. On May 9 we launched TBRI® 101: A Self-Guided Course in Trust-Based Relationships, a new resource that we’ve had in the works for quite awhile. Although this resource just became available, TBRI® 101 has an interesting history. Dr. David Cross, who created the TBRI® 101 video lessons with Dr. Karyn Purvis, tells us more.  (more…)

An Open Letter to Parents of Children From Hard Places

by: Amanda Purvis

Editors Note: At this year’s Empowered to Connect Conference, Amanda Purvis,Training Specialist, shared this letter she wrote to fellow adoptive and foster parents. We’ve published the letter here in hopes that it letter will encourage parents doing some of the very hardest work of caring for children from hard places. 

 

To my fellow sojourners on the journey to true identity and health:

If you decide to join me and others like us on this journey, you will not regret it, but it will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. Being part of something that requires all of you means you will have to release many things that have carried you thus far on your journey. You will have to release strategies that have served you well but have now become weights as you attempt to become the truest form of who you were meant to be all along. You will have to release these weights so you can help the ones to which you were called. (more…)