Introduction
In September 2026, IPC was pleased to host a webinar exploring the value of the Building Underdeveloped Sensorimotor Systems (BUSS) brief intervention for children who have experienced disruption to their early development and bodily regulation – including care experienced children living in foster or residential care, kinship care or with adoptive parents.
The webinar was chaired by IPC’s Assistant Director, Prof. Katy Burch. Katy has published widely on support for adoption and care experienced children, also for children on the edge of care.
Guest Speakers
During the webinar, we heard from:
- The developer of BUSS, Sarah Lloyd about why this intervention is needed for children who have experienced disruption to their early development and bodily regulation, what it involves and how local authorities, regional adoption agencies and other services can help children to access the support.
- Experts by experience including three children whose experiences and voices make up an engaging short BUSS animation and a parent attending the webinar.
- The lead researcher of BUSS, Dr Helen Close from Newcastle University describing key findings of relevance to families, practitioners and commissioners.
Key messages
- 80% care experienced children have experienced trauma. Trauma lives in our bodies as well as our minds.
- Bodily ‘regulation’ is our bodies doing what we need it to do without us having to pay too much conscious attention. It is the foundation for emotional regulation.
- We need our body’s 3 main ‘systems’ (vestibular, tactile and proprioceptive) to do their jobs well – look these up!
- For these systems to develop and work well, babies and children need consistent nurture, loving touch, communication and movement.
- Disruptions to these things affect negatively children, as everyday activities and busy environments require a huge amount of effort to manage – but they can be repaired with the right support i.e. playful activities that, with support from parents and carers, allow children to go back to fill in the gaps.
- BUSS is a low cost, brief intervention that has been positively evaluated by Newcastle University (2021-2025) involving 468 children aged 2-19 years in a quasi-experimental design finding statistically significant improvements in children’s: daily functioning, emotions, behaviour, relationships and specific goals.
Feedback
“All of it was excellent but it was particularly powerful to hear from a parent who has experienced BUSS and could speak about the impact on day-to-day life.”
“I am a Team Manager in Adoption Support and the model of working with parents as the agents of change aligns perfectly with our approach.”
Summary
You can view the BUSS animation on YouTube here.
A big thank you to all our speakers and contributors. It was a great day!
