Buss Model

Building Underdeveloped Sensorimotor Systems (BUSS® ) is a clinical intervention for children and families who have experienced developmental trauma. 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 – the loving, attuned adult and the chance to grow into their bodies. This is significant because good bodily regulation and sensory integration gives the developing child a solid platform to negotiate the many developmental tasks of childhood: making relationships, play, making sense of the world, understanding and managing their feelings and learning. A lot of work with children who have experienced abuse and neglect focuses on relational and psychological therapies. These are vital but 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 for touch, nurture and movement 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. BUSS® can be delivered as an individual programme of work, or as part of an early years group. We run (and support other people to run) groups for preschool children and their foster carers and new adoptive parents and their newly adopted children. More recently, we’ve started to work with colleagues in education, developing programmes of work for children in early years settings, so that they can work with and support children and their parents and carers in this way of working.