National Adoption Week with Sarah Lloyd the BUSS model

The brain and central nervous system of a newborn baby is still at an early stage of development and babies need an attuned adult and lots of nurture and movement experiences to allow them to grow into their bodies on a physical and an emotional level. When babies and young children are in neglectful and/or abusive environments they miss out on both aspects of this. Good bodily regulation and sensory integration give the developing child a solid platform to negotiate the many developmental tasks of childhood.

A lot of work with children who have experienced abuse and neglect focuses on relational and psychological therapies. These can be complemented by an intervention like BUSS, which brings together an understanding of the impact of trauma on the child, the importance of loving relationships and an inherent need to move in order to develop good bodily regulation. The focus of the model is to support families in using games and activities that will allow them to rebuild underdeveloped parts of a child’s foundation systems.

Ruth Coppin and Sophie Varian Nutall are adoptive parents of preschool children who have lived experience of using the BUSS model with their adopted children and who will talk about the process of doing this and the impact it has had on their life and their child’s life.