ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the child's initial adaptation to the loss and the inability to talk about what has been experienced. Young children who board have to cope with their initial feelings of sadness and loss by denying them; this often means that, as adults, they are not in touch with their emotions. Boarders have to create a new personality, a self, to cope with, to compensate for the loss, and with which to adapt and survive the unknown environment of the boarding school. Elaine Arnold has worked with children who were left behind in the Caribbean and only joined their mothers in the UK many years after they had settled. The resolution for the child's pain and behaviour would be that the child returns to the familiar world of 'home'. All parents want to know that their child is safe and happy, but boarders' parents also want to be reassured that they have made a good investment.
