Be Child Wise Workbook

This workbook was created to be used with the 'Be Child Wise' book and represents the wisdom of many professionals from Intermountain, the oldest child welfare agency in Montana. In its 105-year existence, Intermountain has developed a way of understanding children and families that helps them heal. Our treatment approach has at its center the principle that what is harmed by relationship must be healed by relationship. It is our job as adults to be the healing agent for children by understanding the need that the child is expressing. The science of child development acknowledges that each age of development can represent growth and regression, and this is particularly true of children who have experienced loss, trauma, or emotional distress. The understanding of child development, particularly as it may go askew, is crucial in understanding how to frame and proceed in the healing relationship. We call Intermountain's approach, which developed over the past thirty-three years, a developmental/ relational approach. Our hope is that parents might read this book before adopting or fostering, but we realize that the heart often leads the head, so you may be coming to this book after you have made the heroic decision to bring a child into your home. We want this book to give you the tools to understand yourself and your child, so you can become the strongest family you can be. The first chapters are designed to help you see yourself and your own strengths and weaknesses, and then to see the world through your child's eyes, for only then will your relationship with your child be a healing one. The second part of the book provides methods to help your child negotiate the world and your relationship in positive ways. So, we invite you into the world of your own hopes, fears, wants, and needs, and those of your child. These may be two very different worlds at first, but they can come together and coalesce into one compassionate, forgiving, and loving world.