Episode 248: Learning the Language of a Child’s Brain (w/ Cherilyn Orr)
The Forgotten Podcast
The Forgotten Initiative
4.9 • 532 Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Does this sound familiar to you? The child in your care comes home from school and after having a snack and telling you about their day, you sit down to help them with their homework. In an instant, it’s like you have an entirely different child. They throw themselves on the floor in rage or even check out entirely at the mere mention of homework.
Or maybe you receive what feels like daily calls from their school updating you about something that happened during the day or asking you to come pick them up early.
These are just a couple of many scenarios you may find yourself in when caring for a child who has experienced trauma. It can feel like all the tactics you’ve learned or used in the past don’t work anymore. My guest today can relate!
Cherilyn Orr has a background in education spanning from the pre-school to university level along with extensive professional development in trauma-informed care. Launched out of her own need as a parent to help her children, Cherilyn developed the Stoplight Approach which simplifies complex brain science into a common language to transform relationships. She is a mother to many—three biological, four adopted, and multiple children through foster care.
In this episode, you’ll learn what is going on inside your child’s brain in these chaotic moments, what the Stoplight Approach is, and some practical tools for trauma-informed care to add to your toolbelt.
Find resources mentioned and more in the show notes for this episode: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/cherilyn-orr-248/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sharing the stories of the foster care community. This is The Forgotten Podcast. Do I invite the children to run to me when you've made a mess, when you punch your sister in the face, when you've thrown something at somebody, if you've forgotten your homework, if you've done something you shouldn't have done, |
| 0:21.1 | you lied about something, do they feel safe enough to run to me in their worst version |
| 0:26.7 | of themselves? |
| 0:27.7 | Hey, it's Jamie Cabe. |
| 0:30.7 | Welcome back to the Forgotten Podcast, where we are highlighting the stories of the people |
| 0:35.3 | of foster care. |
| 0:36.5 | With every episode, our goal is to help you better |
| 0:39.0 | understand the foster care community. We want to bring you hope and encouragement in your |
| 0:43.8 | journey and help you support the agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children |
| 0:49.7 | in foster care right where you live. If you want to learn more about TFI, catch up on past episodes, |
| 0:56.6 | read engaging articles, or partner with us on mission with a gift of any amount, head over to |
| 1:03.0 | the forgotten initiative.org. We are in this together. Okay, it is time. Let's do this. |
| 1:21.6 | Today I have Sherilyn or with me on the podcast. |
| 1:26.4 | Sherilyn has a background as an educator from preschool to university level, along with |
| 1:31.8 | extensive professional development in trauma-informed care. |
| 1:35.8 | She is a mother to many, three biological children, four adoptive children, and multiple |
| 1:41.6 | children through foster care. |
| 1:43.8 | Born out of her own need as a parent to help |
| 1:46.2 | her children, she developed the steplight approach, simplifying complex brain science into a common |
| 1:53.1 | language with the aim of transforming relationships. We're going to have a good conversation |
| 1:58.4 | today. Thanks for being on. Thank you. I'm really, |
| 2:01.0 | really happy to be here with you. Yeah, me too. Well, I just want to recognize the time of year that we |
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