Researcher Brings Neuroscience to Utah Foster Families
The Utah Foster Care Foundation held a Symposium Monday focused on the latest science of child brain development, and how neuroscience is helping foster families overcome trauma and attachment issues.
Foster parents need help and support, according to Mick Woolsey, Director of Education for Utah Foster Care.
“These parents are seeing children coming in with more severe trauma than we’ve seen in the past, more difficult behaviors or challenging behaviors because of the trauma and the neglect that they’ve experienced in their lives,” Woolsey says.
This year’s symposium in is focused on the neuroscience behind a foster child’s behavior. The one-day event at the Zermatt Resort in Midway featured the work of Dr. Daniel Siegel, author of The Whole Brain Child.
"Most of his research is based on attachment and trauma,” Woolseys says, “how those two things interact with eachother, and how to use those to touch a child’s life and to help them heal from what’s happened to them.”
She says Dr. Siegel’s research shows that a child’s brain can be rewired, and foster parents can help with that process.