Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D., is an internationally-recognized authority on children in crisis. Dr. Perry is the Provincial Medical Director in Children’s Mental Health for the Alberta Mental Health Board. In addition, he is the Senior Fellow of the ChildTrauma Academy (www.ChildTrauma.org), a Houston-based organization dedicated to research and education on child maltreatment. Dr. Perry has been consulted on many high-profile incidents involving traumatized children, including the Columbine, Colorado school shootings, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Branch Davidian siege. Click here for advice on teaching about 9/11 from child psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Perry.

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Every year millions of children are physically and emotionally abused. Learn creative and practical approaches to understanding and working with maltreated children via free, online courses at ChildTraumaAcademy.com. Courses are short, self paced and allow you to talk to other students online! Enroll now!

 

Keep the Cool in School

Keep the Cool in School
In the first of a series of articles about promoting nonviolent behavior in children, Dr. Perry gives an overview of the 6 core strengths that children need in order to be humane.

Attachment: The First Core Strength
In the second article of the Keep the Cool in School campaign, Dr. Perry discusses attachment and how it contributes to preventing aggression and anti-social behaviors in children.
Self-Regulation: The Second Core Strength
In the third article of the Keep the Cool in School campaign, Dr. Perry explores self-regulation and how it contributes to preventing aggression and anti-social behaviors in children.
Affiliation: The Third Core Strength
In the fourth article of the Keep the Cool in School campaign, Dr. Perry shares how educators can help students feel included, connected and valued.
Awareness: The Fourth Core Strength
In the fifth article of the Keep the Cool in School campaign, Dr. Perry shares ideas about encouraging children to respect and appreciate each other's differences and similarities.
Tolerance: The Fifth Core Strength
In the sixth article of the Keep the Cool in School campaign, Dr. Perry discusses tolerance, the most complex of the six core strengths.
Respect: The Sixth Core Strength
In the seventh article of the Keep the Cool in School campaign, Dr. Perry explores how educators can help students accept and enjoy the differences in others.
The Developing Child
A Place for Everyone: Nurturing Each Child's Niche
One of the many jobs of early childhood educators is to nurture the uniqueness of every child. This article includes tips for identifying a child's individual strengths and needs.
The Importance of Pleasure in Play
Play, more than any other activity, fuels healthy development of children. In this article, learn strategies for mixing emotional, social, and cognitive challenge with fun.
Curiosity: The Fuel of Development
For children, the positive cycle of learning is fueled by curiosity, and the pleasure that comes from discovery and mastery. Find out how teachers can help to keep the process going.
How Sounds Become Words
How is it that words come to have meaning? When does the sound become the word? And how can we help children learn the true meaning of our most important words?
The Developmental Hot Zone
Helping children move from the comfortable and familiar, and take on new challenges, is a very important task. In this latest article, Dr. Perry outlines strategies for providing the right opportunities for children at the right time, and in the proper sequence.
The Meaning in Words
In a conversation with Early Childhood Today editor Helen Benham, Dr. Perry explains how children learn to make sense of the language they hear — in conjunction with the actions they see.
Biological Relativity: Time and the Developing Child
Can mere hours in infancy have more power to shape us than months in middle age?
Children in Distress
Children and Loss
Teachers serve as a crucial emotional bridge for a child at times of loss. What do we need to know to help students cope, especially in the classroom environment?
Death and Loss: Helping Children Manage Their Grief
Dr. Perry shares strategies for helping children to adjust to difficult situations such as moving, divorce, and death.
Bonding and Attachment in Maltreated Children: Consequences of Emotional Neglect in Childhood
Dr. Perry explains why experiences during infancy and early childhood are so critical to shaping our capacity to form emotionally healthy relationships, and how maltreatment can impair this important capability.
Bonding and Attachment in Maltreated Children: How You Can Help
In this article, Dr. Perry suggests ways that responsive adults, such as parents, teachers, and other caregivers, can make all the difference in the lives of maltreated children.
Why Does Violence Happen?
Dr. Perry revisits the Columbine High School tragedy one year later. Use this article as a teaching resource to initiate student discussion.
The Child's Loss: Death, Grief, and Mourning
Find out how teachers, caregivers, and other adults can help children exposed to traumatic death.

The Impact of Abuse and Neglect on the Developing Brain
Find out how destructive experiences can affect children in far-reaching ways — emotional, behavioral, academic, social, and physical — for life.

Principles of Working With Traumatized Children
Some special considerations for teachers and caregivers in understanding and working with children who have suffered trauma.

Aggression and Violence: The Neurobiology of Experience
Over 5 million children are directly exposed to violence in the U.S. each year. What will the impact on our society be? Read on to find out more.
The Brain and Learning
Attunement: Reading the Rhythms of the Child
Learning about children's individual strengths, vulnerabilities, and preferred styles of communication can help teachers to reach — and teach — each child more effectively.

Using Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom
In this article, Dr. Perry outlines how computers, the Internet, television, and other technology tools can help children develop curiosity, problem-solving, and independent-thinking skills.
Creating an Emotionally Safe Classroom
Why are the first days of the new school year so important? Find out what you can do during these first weeks to help new students come to enjoy school and love learning.
How the Brain Learns Best
In his latest article, Dr. Perry outlines some easy ways to help your students learn optimally in the classroom by helping to activate different parts of the brain.

A growing list of Web sites, publications, and organizations focusing on helping children in crisis.