WON'T DO OR CAN'T DO?
Running time: 45 minutes
Price: £25 + VAT

An explanation of how traumatic experiences in infancy can impact children’s ability to learn in childhood. A video conversation with Family Futures Educational Specialist Marion Allen who is a teacher, who has pioneered educational programmes for children who are adopted or fostered.

The DVD is designed as an information programme for teachers and parents who are involved with children who are Adopted or Fostered. Family Futures has found a significant connection between cognitive processing and problem solving difficulties in school age children and their experience of repeated trauma in infancy. Family Futures has pioneered an integrated home / school strategy programme to help children overcome their difficulties with help from parents and teachers.

The DVD covers the following topics:

• The impact of repeated trauma in infancy on childhood development
• Developmental Trauma Disorder
• What is Executive Functioning?
• How do Executive Functioning difficulties affect children in the classroom?
• How can parents and teachers help children develop their Executive Functioning skills?

ATTACHMENT, DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING DIFFICULTIES IN THE SCHOOL SETTING
NEW HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS
Price: £25

Family Futures has pioneered innovative classroom strategies for helping children who have experienced trauma in infancy and who have attachment difficulties cope in the classroom.  There is now a clear link based on research, between neglect and abuse and cognitive processing and behaviour problems in the classroom setting.

The handbook looks at 35 different problematic behaviours which children who have attachment difficulties and executive functioning problems exhibit in the classroom.  There is an introductory passage explaining executive functioning and how it impacts upon children's learning and behaviour.  This is followed by charts which itemise behaviours, possible triggers and suggests interventions that the teacher might use. 

A TOOL KIT FOR TEACHERS - CD Rom
A RESOURCE CD ROM FOR USE IN THE CLASSROOM WITH CHILDREN WHO HAVE EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING DIFFICULTIES
Price: £80

There are eight areas of functioning which are affected by executive functioning difficulties.  The tool kit has practical tools and suggestions for helping children learn to manage their own behaviour in each of these domains.  The tool kit is a resource that could be photo-copied and the tools and strategies re-used.  This is a very practical addition to the handbook and the DVD. It comes with a CD Rom to enable schools to replicate materials.

IF YOU WISH TO PURCHASE ALL OF THE ABOVE 3 ITEMS WE OFFER A £10 DISCOUNT
(only if ordered at the same time)

FIVE BY FIVE
Directed and produced by Alan Burnell
5 Experts Outlining 5 Key Issues in a Multi-disciplinary Approach to Permanent Placement

• Psychologist;
  Dr Dan Hughes
• Therapist;
  Jay Vaughan
• Paediatrician;
  Dr Deborah Hodes
• Educational Psychologist;
  Dr Richard Lansdown
• Psychiatrist;
  Dr Neil Harris

Each of the above experts will outline what they perceive as the 5 most critical issues in Fostering and Adoption today from their professional perspective and elaborate upon them.

Each interview will last approximately 15 minutes.
The film is designed to be a training video for social workers, psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists and paediatricians.   The aim of the video is to highlight the complex issues involved in permanent placement from the perspective of 5 different disciplines.

Each section will be a stand alone trigger for discussion.

Price: £80+VAT

JANNIE'S STORY - NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD
Written and directed by Jay Vaughan

Produced by Alan Burnell
Running time: 25 minutes

This highly acclaimed dramatisation of one child's experience of being traumatised whilst in care of her mentally ill and alcoholic birth mother has been used to great effect to convey what it feels like to be "Jannie".  The dvd is in 4 parts:

• The first sequence is a typical day when a mundane event of making a cup of tea turns into a traumatic incident leading to Jannie's removal from home and the making of an emergency placement order.
• The second cameo is Jannie's reaction to the event; her thought processes and her internalisation of the negative messages her birth mother gave her.
• The third cameo is Jannie's adoptive mother trying hard to relate to Jannie when the everyday event of having a cup of tea rekindles Jannie's memory of the earlier trauma.  Jannie's re-enactment completely mystifies and frustrates her adoptive mother who is unaware of the origins of Jannie's outbursts.
• The first three vignettes are filmed face-on as talking heads.  The fourth scenario shows the third sequence again, this time with Jannie and her adoptive mother acting out their argument.

These 4 sequences are designed to convey the way in which traumatic events become embedded in patterns of behaviour and can be re-enacted in foster and adoptive homes.  The intention is to convey how important it is for new parents to understand a child's history so they can put the child's behaviour into a context. The training video is designed to be a trigger for trainers and social workers to explore how it feels to be traumatised, how this is internalised and then re-enacted.

Price: £80+VAT

"BEEN THERE DONE THAT"
A Training Video for New Parents
PARENTS TALKING ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE OF ADOPTION
Directed by Lesley Manning

Produced by Jay Vaughan and Alan Burnell

This dvd is the third in our series of training videos. First-hand, frank and honest accounts are given by six parents, who outline   with hindsight, the highs and lows of becoming an adoptive parent, and the lessons they feel other parents could learn from their experience. Each story is inter-shot with comments on adoption by members of the public and each parents' story is a trigger video for discussion. The topics covered include:

• Infertility and failed IVF treatment
• The impact of becoming a parent on couple relationships
• Coping with challenging and difficult behaviour
• Parenting a child with special needs
• Parenting as a same-sex couple
• A father's role
• Sibling rivalry and parenting violent children
• The need for and impact of therapy
• Things that could be done differently
• Positive outcomes

The dvd is professionally produced and is approximately 90 minutes long.

Price: £80+VAT

WHAT FEELINGS"
CHILDREN'S EXPERIENCE OF FOSTERING AND ADOPTION
Produced by Alan Burnell & Jay Vaughan
Directed by Lesley Manning

This dvd is the second in a series of dvds designed to enhance the preparation and training of foster carers and adoptive parents. It conveys real-life experiences of children placed in foster homes or adoptive families.

The following issues are covered in the "What Feelings?" video:

• What children who are not fostered or adopted understand about what it is like living apart from your birth family
• The impact of early trauma and how painful it is for children to work through their experiences.
• Children's ability to deal with loss and experience 'adaptive grieving'
• The powerful feelings that children have about birth parents and adoptive parents and the significance of these feelings.

The dvd gives six separate accounts by children of their real life experiences. They highlight themes of separation, early trauma, loss and identity formation. The accounts that the children give are moving and designed to help parents have a deeper understanding of the children they are fostering or have adopted.

The dvd has been made by Lesley Manning, a professional film maker, and is of professional VHS quality.   Six pages of introductory notes, some theoretical background and a suggested reading list accompany the video. These can be photocopied and used as handouts.

Price: £80+VAT

DAN HUGHES  "REAL TO REEL"                            A DVD CONVERSATION
Directed and produced by Lesley Manning

The impact of trauma on children and how foster families and adoptive families can help them.
Directed and produced by Lesley Manning
 

This dvd is the first in a series designed to enhance the preparation and training of foster carers and adoptive parents. In the dvd, Dan Hughes talks to an adoptive parent, Liz Harding, about the following issues:

• Recent research that has extended our understanding of the impact of trauma on children and their early development
• The role of foster carers and adoptive parents as "therapeutic parents." How parents can help children develop more secure and positive attachments, even if they are only caring for them for a short time
• Long term support to families and parents in strategies for coping with oppositional behaviour
• The role of social worker and therapists in helping children to develop attachments. How a developmental approach to attachment formation has changed the way therapists work with children.

Price £80+VAT

FAMILY FUTURES ASSESSMENT HANDBOOK
Frameworks for Assessing Children who have Experienced Developmental Trauma

AVAILABLE NOW

A comprehensive and integrated framework that has been developed over the past 10 years by the authors for assessing traumatised children with attachment difficulties.   The handbook gives a theoretical and research based rational for assessing children who have experienced early trauma.   It also includes practical tools that can be photo-copied and used.  There is a case illustration throughout to demonstrate how the assessment tools can be used.  The assessment handbook covers the following issues:

• Child and Adult Attachment Styles
• Sibling Attachments
• Matching
• Contact Arrangements

"Essential reading for Family Placement workers and Adoption Teams" A Panel Advisor

In addition to the handbook: -

• comes a dvd outlining the work of Family Futures
• Annual updates are available
• Free telephone consultation
• A training programme is available for purchase for agencies wishing to train staff in the use of the handbook

Price: £75+p&p