Victoria Lynn Hayden, known as Torey L. Hayden (born 21 May 1951 in Livingston, Montana

Livingston, Montana

-Geography:Livingston is located at , at an altitude of 4.501 feet .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, of it is land and 0.38% is waters.-Climate:-Demographics:...

, U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

), is a female child psychologist, special education

Special education

Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

 teacher, university lecturer and writer of non-fiction books based on her real-life experiences with teaching and counseling children with special needs.

Subjects covered in her books include autism

Autism

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...

, Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane...

, sexual abuse

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...

, fetal alcohol syndrome

Fetal alcohol syndrome

Fetal alcohol syndrome is a pattern of mental and physical defects that can develop in a fetus in association with high levels of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Current research also implicates other lifestyle choices made by the prospective mother...

, and elective mutism (now called selective mutism

Selective mutism

Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which a person, most often a child, who is normally capable of speech is unable to speak in given situations, or to specific people...

), her specialty.

Hayden attended high school in Billings, Montana

Billings, Montana

Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, and is the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area, the largest metropolitan area in over...

 and graduated in 1969. She attended Whitman College

Whitman College

Whitman College is a private, co-educational, non-sectarian, residential undergraduate liberal arts college located in Walla Walla, Washington. Initially founded as a seminary by a territorial legislative charter in 1859, the school became a four year degree granting institution in 1883...

 in Walla Walla, Washington

Walla Walla, Washington

Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...

. She received a Master's degree in Special Education from Montana State University Billings in 1975 and moved to University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

 in Minneapolis for a doctorate in educational psychology. While there, she also worked with the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the university hospitals.

Hayden moved to Wales in 1980 and married a Scotsman named Ken in 1982. In 1985 they had a daughter (Sheena). Hayden is presently divorced.

In Wales Hayden has worked primarily with charities associated with child neglect

Child neglect

Child neglect is defined as:# "the failure of a person responsible for a child’s care and upbringing to safeguard the child’s emotional and physical health and general well-being"...

 and abuse

Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...

, including Childline, the NSPCC, the Samaritans and the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

She has written three books of fiction in addition to her non-fiction books (see below).

Works

Published in English:

• One Child
  One Child
  One Child is a book written by American author and psychologist Torey Hayden. It was first published in the United States in 1980. This book has been translated into 27 languages and dramatized as an interactive opera...
  
  (1980)
• Somebody Else’s Kids (1981)
• Murphy’s Boy (1983)/Silent Boy (British title for Murphy's Boy)
• Just Another Kid (1988)
• Ghost Girl (1991)
• The Tiger’s Child (1995)
• Beautiful Child (2002)
• Twilight Children (2005)

Fiction

• The Sunflower Forest (1984)
• The Mechanical Cat (1999)/Overheard In A Dream (English title for The Mechanical Cat)
• The Very Worst Thing (2003)