Dr Maxine Thérèse is a researcher, author and mother whose work centres on a simple question: what do children really need? She returned to university to pursue that question and completed a PhD, and her doctoral research became the Foundational Needs Model (FNM). This peer-reviewed framework is built around seven foundational needs and grounded in what we now understand about nervous system development. Through the FNM, a child's behaviour becomes a form of communication, a way of showing the adults around them which needs are being met and which are still waiting for attention.

Maxine's work and research brings together science, philosophy and traditional wisdom about childhood, and she holds them side by side without forcing one to explain the others. Her book, The Push for a Child Philosophy, sets out the ideas behind this approach, and a tenth anniversary edition is now underway. Childosophy is where this work lives. It offers professional learning for educators, mental health professionals and Childosophy Practitioner training along with practical tools for parents and carers, including the PAUSE strategy and the Rainbow of Needs. Each one gives adults an accessible way to notice what a child might be asking for and to respond with curiosity and steadiness, especially in the moments that feel hardest.

Maxine speaks from experience as a parent as well as a researcher, and her writing carries that warmth. She invites teachers, families and practitioners to slow down and look again at the children in their care, trusting that understanding a need is the first step towards meeting it.