Axiom 01
Timing is not a footnote
When the rupture landed is not demographic trivia. It is a variable that moves the outcome.
The research spine of Dr. RAD | The Attachment Code Breaker™
The field drew a line
at age five.
Families have been paying for that line ever since.
Across three volumes, Dr. Franklin Edward Shoemaker, PhD, LMHC-QS, and Tonya A. Sharrett-Shoemaker, MA, dismantle the claim that attachment collapse “only counts” in early childhood — and replace it with a named model: the Shoemaker Timing–Severity Hypothesis.
Dissertation defended 2016
F94.1 / F94.2 after the cutoff
Three volumes · Closed scholarly set
$150 · hardback direct from the authors
Exhibit one
The sentence
and the child
The manual draws a line. The child in front of you does not read the manual. Move along the years below and watch where the families actually break — after the gate, not before it.
0
3
8
13
18
AGE 5the so-called cutoff
05The line
“RAD only counts before age five.”
That is the sentence in the manual. It has been quietly costing thousands of families their peace, their marriages, their sanity — and their kids’ futures. Select a later age to see what the sentence cannot explain.
The named model
The Shoemaker
Timing–Severity Hypothesis
Timing is not a
Axiom 02
Severity is not a mood
Caregiver-reported severity is measurable, not a bad week that will pass by Thursday.
Axiom 03
Predisposition is not an excuse
A named mark, a tissue, and a design may be discussed as vulnerability. Never as a verdict.
Axiom 04
Caregivers are not extras
They are not background in the child’s story. They are inside the mechanism.
Plate 01 · Core study 2016 · Published summary 2017
The hypothesis as a working method, in the order the work actually runs. Later harm still moves severity, so the file does not close — and none of this is a DSM specifier.
- Split constructs.
- Time the harm.
- Name severity, not RAD.
- Protect the adult.
- Record the ceiling.
- Later harm still moves severity. Do not close the file. Not a DSM specifier.
Caregivers are the living algorithm that writes, repeats, or rewrites the attachment code.
Three volumes · One argument
The set
From the Clinic and the Classroom — No Magic Wand
Breaking the Attachment Code
Attachment Code Breaker
The Shoemaker Timing–Severity Hypothesis
Book One of The Age Five Gate Trilogy
I
Breaking the Attachment Code
The 2016 dissertation in published form.
How child maltreatment fuels the severity of attachment difficulties in children ages five and older. The research that launched Dr. RAD.
It reveals the evidence-based relationship between child maltreatment and severity of attachment difficulty after age five — and translates complex statistical findings into clear, practical understanding that can change how these children are supported every single day.
Facts
Focus
Fire
Ages 5+
Original dissertation data
Read the author’s note
“When I defended my doctoral dissertation in 2016, I knew the findings were significant. What I did not fully realize at the time was how urgently that research needed to reach the hands of those who need it most — clinicians, adoptive and foster parents, educators, and child advocates.
As Dr. RAD — The Attachment Code Breaker, I have spent years in the trenches helping children and families impacted by trauma. My approach has always been guided by three uncompromising principles: Facts. Focus. Fire.
This book delivers the Facts — grounded in my original dissertation research. It demands Focus on what actually drives attachment problems after maltreatment. And it carries the Fire necessary to break unhealthy cycles and create lasting, secure attachments.
My deepest hope is that this work equips you with both the knowledge and the confidence to support the healing of children who deserve secure, loving relationships.”
II
Later Trauma,
Deeper Wounds
The results the system did not want.
When safety is built and then ripped away after age five, the wound is not milder. It is deeper, more violent, and more resistant than early trauma ever was.
Unraveling attachment difficulties in children aged five and older — what happens when a child who finally trusted the floor beneath them watches it get pulled up.
Second placement change
Bio-parent reappearance
The move at 7
The crisis at 11
Book Two asks
- What if everything you’ve been told about Reactive Attachment Disorder is only half the story — and the missing half is the one destroying your family right now?
- What if the meltdown that happened at age 9 wasn’t “just teen drama” or ADHD or “oppositional defiance”… but the loudest scream a child can make when the safety they finally trusted gets ripped away?
- What if the kid who was “fine” until the second placement change, the bio-parent reappearance, the move at age 7, or the family crisis at age 11 is not broken because of what happened early — but because of what happened later?
- And what if the system that told you “RAD only counts before age five” has been quietly costing thousands of families their peace, their marriages, their sanity — and their kids’ futures?
The mismatch is not your imagination. The mismatch is the topic.
III
Beyond the
Age Five Gate
The theory.
Predispositional and generational trauma, F94.1 and F94.2, and algorithmic substitute caregivers — what happens when the code keeps running after the so-called cutoff, and who is running it.
Book One published the 2016 dissertation. Book Two reported the later-trauma results the system did not want. Book Three names what those volumes made unavoidable: F94.1 and F94.2 after the cutoff, and the algorithmic substitute caregivers now running code the pioneers could not score.
Predispositional trauma
Generational trauma
F94.1
F94.2
Algorithmic substitute caregivers
Close the book
If you came here for a new label that makes the child easier to manage. Labels that do not change adult timing become Loop Fuel.
Close the book
If you came here to replace DSM criteria with a house brand. Criteria are a floor. They are not a religion, and they are not ours to overwrite by proclamation.
Stay
If you came here because the age-five sentence in the manual and the child in front of you do not match. The mismatch is the topic.
Travels with every chapter
Three precision rules
Rule 01
State the credential exactly
PhD in psychology plus LMHC-QS
Florida licensed psychologist
Rule 02
SSI-MR is not a normed test
Do not treat it as one. An instrument used outside its design produces numbers, not findings.
Rule 03
Epigenetics is not a curse
A named mark, a tissue, and a design may be discussed as vulnerability.
“Trauma lives in the genes” is folklore
Never collapsed
Four constructs stay split
Attachment classificationWhat the pattern is
Caregiver-reported severityHow loud the difficulty is
ComplianceWhat the child performs
Felt safetyWhat the child experiences
Collapse them and the chapter fails Engine 14 — even if the prose is moving.
Who is running the code
Algorithmic
substitute caregivers
The pioneers could not score a caregiver that never sleeps, never repairs, and never attunes. Book Three can. When the adult in the room is replaced by a feed, the attachment code keeps running — it just stops being written by anyone accountable.
From the clinic and the classroom — no magic wand
Snapped Shifted Solid
Plate 02 · Three panels · Six months to eighteen
What each stage looks like when it is real, and what it is not. Solid is a held change, not a poster — staffing can still be short and the stage still counts.
Snapped: Name the code. Fear Engine running. Seeking gone or check-back gone. Adult jaw hot. Feed answers first.
Shifted: One job only. Limit if needed. Twelve-second return. Three-minute hinge. One observation line.
Solid: 6 months one figure still there. 18 months use or check-back holds. Staffing still short. Not a poster.
You are not broken. You are a Code Breaker — only after the adult returns.
Kid-facing line
You are not broken. You are a Code Breaker.
Used only when the work is with the child — and never as a substitute for adult recovery.
No magic wand.
Snapped Shifted Solid.
The gate was never closed.
For the group chat, the case file, the staffing
Take the line
with you
Available now · Hardback · $150 the set
The research spine,
direct from the authors
This is not another parenting pep talk. It is a closed scholarly set for readers who are done being told the trauma happened “too late” to matter.
$150
Buy direct from the authors
For the set · all three hardback volumes
Clinicians
Adoptive and foster parents
Educators
Child advocates
The authors
From the clinic
and the classroom
Years in the trenches with children and families impacted by trauma, written down with the numbers attached. Facts. Focus. Fire.
Precision note: the credential is a PhD in psychology plus LMHC-QS. It is not a Florida psychologist license.