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INTRODUCTORY
Courses
Introduction to Therapeutic Parenting
Introduction to Attachment
Introduction to De-escalation
A Word About Developmental Trauma and Related Disorders by
Sarah Naish
"The term developmental trauma disorder (DTD) really encompasses all of what we see in our traumatised children and more!
There has been a huge campaign by Dr Bessel Van der Kolk and his colleagues in the USA (2015) to get DTD recognised and included in the mental health diagnostics manual, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).
Sadly, however, despite his research evidencing the existence of DTD, it is still not included as an official diagnosis.
Attachment disorder or reactive attachment disorder (RAD) is a serious symptom but a watered-down version, and even that is often not diagnosed at all.
As far as diagnoses are concerned, the experience of many therapeutic parents is that it is very rare for a thorough quality assessment to be undertaken that separates out the different diagnoses (or rather symptoms of an underlying disorder) in a child who has suffered early life trauma.
Most of the behaviours and ‘disorders’ we see are really symptoms of developmental trauma disorder, and once Van der Kolk manages to get that recognised, we might all finally get the support our children need.
You may notice that in this book I don’t mention too much about attachment, nor all the other diagnoses our children may have. There is a reason for this. Typically, developmental trauma will result in whole range of associated disorders such as:
POST-TRAUMATIC
STRESS DISORDER
OPOSITION
DEFIANCE DISORDER
ATTACHMENT
DISORDER
PATHALOGICAL
DEMAND AVOIDANCE
ADHD
AUTISM
DYSPRAXIA
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