Luna Little Legs : A Professional Guide

This guidebook is designed to support professionals with the effective use of the storybook, Luna Little Legs, which has been created help preschool aged children understand about domestic abuse and coercive control.

Sensitively and accessibly written, the guidebook presents the adult with comprehensive information regarding domestic abuse and coercive control, and its impact on young children, putting them in a position to have important and informed interactions with the young children in their care. These conversations help children to make sense of their experiences of domestic abuse, giving them the opportunity to vocalise their feelings and to understand what to do when something is not right.

Key features of this book include:

• Page-by-page notes to support the sensitive reading of the Luna Little Legs story
• Accessible information about domestic abuse and coercive control based on the latest research
• A comprehensive list of helplines and organisations in place to support adult victims of domestic abuse.

This is an essential companion to the Luna Little Legs story, and is crucial reading for anybody working with young children and their families who are experiencing, or have experienced, domestic abuse and coercive control.

Catherine Lawler is a qualified specialist children’s counsellor, trauma practitioner and a childhood survivor of domestic abuse. She has extensive experience of working with children, young people and families as well as developing and facilitating training on the issue of domestic abuse and coercive control. Catherine is co-author of Domestic Violence and Children: A Handbook for Schools and Early Years (Routledge, 2010) and Floss and the Boss: Helping Children Learn About Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control (Routledge 2021).

Norma Howes has trained in social work, child forensic psychology and psychotherapy. She is also trainer and consultant for workers from agencies about the impact of all forms of trauma, abuse and neglect. She has a special interest in domestic abuse and sexual trauma. She has written Guides for Community Care Inform: A Trauma model for working with i) domestic abuse, ii) sexual exploitation, iii) contact between children and their families and a Guide on the Neurobiological Impact of Contact.

Nicky Armstrong, B.A.(Hons) Theatre Design, M.A. Slade School of Fine Arts, has illustrated 30 books which have been translated and published in seven countries. She has achieved major commissions in both mural and fine art painting.