Dr. Karyn Purvis, author of The Connected Child, is the featured speaker at the Connected Child Conference: Bringing Hope and Healing to Your Family, March 6-7 at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC. More details at The Connected Child website.

I have heard Dr. Purvis’s book highly recommended as a resource for parents of adopted children, particularly children who have had a damaging background (institutionalization, multiple caregivers, abuse, etc.). One such recommendation has been published on our blog.

I encourage you to listen to the following 8-and-a-half-minute interview with Dr. Purvis, aired on WBFJ Radio in Winston-Salem. I think that hearing her should give you a better understanding of her perspective.

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I personally have a mixed reaction to the interview. On the one hand, children who have been through abuse or other forms of trauma do have unique needs, and parenting must take account of those special needs. (And I’m open to the idea that traumatic births might have some impact a child’s psychology.)

On the other hand, it seems odd to assume that every child is “wounded” or “traumatized” (as Dr. Purvis assumes). If I understood her correctly, she wants to treat every instance of disobedience as evidence of deep psychological trauma rather than as evidence of indwelling sin.

Does that seem biblical to you? Perhaps back when the Bible was written, kids had sin problems but they didn’t have trauma problems — and now the situation is exactly reversed. But then again . . .

Whatever the case, I think Dr. Purvis has a lot to offer parents of hurting children. And just like any other advice you hear, the talks at this conference should be filtered through a biblical understanding of sin and redemption, of instruction and nurture.