Many adopted or foster children have complex, troubling, often painful pasts. This book provides parents and professionals with sound advice on how to communicate effectively about difficult and sensitive topics, providing concrete strategies for helping adopted and foster children make sense of the past so they can enjoy a healthy, well-adjusted future. Approximately one of every four adopted children will have adjustment challenges related to their separation from the birth family, earlier trauma, attachment difficulties, and/or issues stemming from the adoption process. Common complicating issues of adopted children are feelings of rejection, abandonment, or confusion about their origins. While many foster and adoptive parents and even many professionals are reluctant to communicate openly about birth histories, silence only adds to the child's confusion and pain. This revised and significantly expanded edition of the award-winning Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child equips parents with the knowledge and tools they need to communicate with their adopted or foster child about their past. Revisions include coverage of significant new research and information regarding the importance of understanding the child's trauma history to his or her well-being and successful adjustment in his foster or adoptive family. The authors answer such questions as: How do I share difficult information about my child's adoption in a sensitive manner? When is the right time to tell my child the whole truth? How do I obtain more information on my child's history? Detailed descriptions of actual cases help the parent or caregiver find ways to discover the truth (particularly in closed and international adoption cases), organize the information, and explain the details of the past gently to a toddler, child, or young adult who may find it frightening or confusing. Presents age-appropriate, specific guidelines that make an intimidating and potentially uncomfortable task straightforward, organized, and manageable Serves to remove the fear of how to make sense of the past for foster and adopted children of all ages, allowing parents, teachers, counselors, and other caregivers to have open, honest, and beneficial dialogues with children and teens with tough pasts Explains how children's development is impacted by separation from their birth families and identifies the issues generated by the trauma occurring before, during, and after the separation Reveals powerful insights gained from the story of one of the first African American children to be adopted in the United States by a white family-an individual who is now middle-aged

This innovative book brings together a wide range of therapeutic approaches, techniques and models to outline recent developments in the practice of supporting children in out-of-home care. It sheds light on the significance of schools, sports and peer relationships in the lives of traumatized children. It also draws particular attention to the vital importance of taking into account children's cultural heritage, and to the growing prevalence of relative care. Each chapter is set out by acclaimed and world-renowned contributors' specific approach, such as Dan Hughes and his work on conceptual maps and Cathy Malchiodi and her research on creative interventions, and gives practical ways to support children and carers. It also includes contributions from Bruce Perry, Allan Schore and Martin Teicher. This comprehensive volume will open new avenues for understanding how the relationship between child and carer can create opportunities for change and healing.

"I'm NOT going to school today!" Riley the Brave is a little bear with big feelings. Some days he wakes up feeling cheerful and ready to brave the day. He has energy to get dressed, eat breakfast and have some fun! But some days he wakes up feeling like a grumpy porcupine. His brow is scrunched and he thinks that it is going to be a terrible day. Today, Riley is having one of those days! What can be done to help him? All children struggle to make it to school some days, and this can be even tougher for children who have had difficult life experiences and extra challenges at school. This book creates a safe space for conversations about big thoughts and feelings, and offers positive tips for families to try. It also features an educational afterword for grown-ups which explains how the book helps children, and how to get the most out of it.

Officially supported and endorsed by the Theraplay Institute, this handbook provides concrete assistance from international experts on deepening Theraplay knowledge and skills in much-needed and requested areas of practice. With up-to-date information on Theraplay theory, applications and implementation, the chapters cover Theraplay with infants, toddlers, school aged children and adolescents. Home, school, and out-patient mental health settings are all covered in detail, as well as dyadic and group forms of Theraplay. Client issues include interpersonal violence, LGBTQ families, anxiety, child sexual abuse, transitioning from foster care to adoption, and deaf and hard of hearing. Additionally, extensive information is provided about working with caregivers including discussion of their own attachment history, practice sessions before including the child, and regular caregiver-only sessions to process and strengthen Theraplay treatment. This book is essential for any Theraplay practitioner wanting to ensure their approach is fully informed and carefully tailored to meet their client's needs.

This brief examines the U.S. foster care system and seeks to explain why the foster care system functions as it does and how it can be improved to serve the best interest of children. It defines and evaluates key challenges that undermine child safety and well-being in the current foster care system. Chapters highlight the competing values and priorities of the system as well as the pros and cons for the use of foster care. In addition, chapters assess whether the performance objectives in which states are evaluated by the federal government are sufficient to achieve positive health and well-being outcomes for children who experience foster care. Finally, it offers recommendations for improving the system and maximizing positive outcomes. Topics featured in this brief include: Legal aspects of removal and placement of children in foster care. The effectiveness of prior efforts to reform foster care. The regulation and quality of foster homes. Support for youth aging out of the foster care system. Racial and ethnic disparities in the foster care system. Foster Care and the Best Interests of the Child is a must-have resource for policy makers and related professionals, graduate students, and researchers in child and school psychology, family studies, public health, social work, law/criminal justice, and sociology.

In "Somebody's Children," Laura Briggs examines the social and cultural forces--poverty, racism, economic inequality, and political violence--that have shaped transracial and transnational adoption in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. Focusing particularly on the experiences of those who have lost their children to adoption, Briggs analyzes the circumstances under which African American and Native mothers in the United States and indigenous and poor women in Latin America have felt pressed to give up their children for adoption or have lost them involuntarily.

The dramatic expansion of transracial and transnational adoption since the 1950s, Briggs argues, was the result of specific and profound political and social changes, including the large-scale removal of Native children from their parents, the condemnation of single African American mothers in the context of the civil rights struggle, and the largely invented "crack babies" scare that inaugurated the dramatic withdrawal of benefits to poor mothers in the United States. In Guatemala, El Salvador, and Argentina, governments disappeared children during the Cold War and then imposed neoliberal economic regimes with U.S. support, making the circulation of children across national borders easy and often profitable. Concluding with an assessment of present-day controversies surrounding gay and lesbian adoptions and the struggles of immigrants fearful of losing their children to foster care, Briggs challenges celebratory or otherwise simplistic accounts of transracial and transnational adoption by revealing some of their unacknowledged causes and costs.

The powerfully moving new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author, Maggie Hartley. Fourteen-year-old Shazia has been taken into care after a conversation at school leads her teacher to suspect that the teenager's family are planning to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage. To her family's fury, Shazia is sent to live with foster carer Maggie Hartley whilst social services investigate. But with Shazia denying everything and social services unable to find any evidence to support the teacher's fears, Shazia is allowed to return home. But a few weeks later, Maggie is woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call from a terrified Shazia, who has managed to escape the family home through a window. Sobbing, she confesses to Maggie that her parents are planning to send her to Pakistan to be married in a few days, and have threatened to kill her if she speaks out again. Returned to Maggie's care, Shazia is petrified that her parents will track her down and kill her, and Maggie must be on constant alert. But the worst is yet to come when it emerges that Shazia is the victim of FGM. Can Maggie help this damaged and traumatised young girl understand what has happened to her and to find a way to heal? In this new book, Maggie Hartley taps into the highly topical issues of FGM and arranged marriage, and presents a sensitive and unique insight into the effect these practices have on their young victims.

Based on a hugely successful US model, the Seven Core Issues in Adoption is the first conceptual framework of its kind to offer a unifying lens that was inclusive of all individuals touched by the adoption experience. The Seven Core Issues are Loss, Rejection, Shame/Guilt, Grief, Identity, Intimacy, and Mastery/Control. The book expands the model to be inclusive of adoption and all forms of permanency: adoption, foster care, kinship care, donor insemination and surrogacy. Attachment and trauma are integrated with the Seven Core Issues model to address and normalize the additional tasks individuals and families will encounter. The book views the Seven Core Issues from a range of perspectives including: multi-racial, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, African-American, International, openness, search and reunion, and others. This essential guide introduces each Core Issue, its impact on individuals, offering techniques for growth and healing.

In Paris during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the practice of adopting children was strongly discouraged by cultural, religious, and legal authorities on the grounds that it disrupted family blood lines. In fact, historians have assumed that adoption had generally not been practiced in France or in the rest of Europe since late antiquity. Challenging this view, Kristin Gager brings to light evidence showing how married couples and single men and women from the artisan neighborhoods in early modern Paris did manage to adopt children as their legal heirs. In so doing, she offers a new, richly detailed portrait of family life, civil law, and public assistance in Paris, and reveals how citizens forged a wide variety of family forms in defiance of social, cultural, and legal norms. Gager bases her work on documents ranging from previously unexplored notarized contracts of adoption to court cases, theological treatises, and literary texts. She examines two main patterns of adoption: those privately arranged between households and those of destitute children from the Parisian foundling hospice and the Hotel-Dieu. Gager argues that although customary law rejected adoption and promoted an exclusively biological model of the family, there existed an alternative domestic culture based on a variety of "fictive" ties. Gager connects her arguments to current debates about adoption and the nature of the family in Europe and the United States. Originally published in 1996. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Maggie Hartley is one of the UK's most prolific foster mothers. This inspiring collection includes three heartbreaking, true short stories about the children who have passed through Maggie's care. IS IT MY FAULT MUMMY? Seven-year-old Paris is trapped in a prison of guilt. Devastated after the death of her baby brother, Joel, Maggie faces one of her most heartbreaking cases yet as she tries to break down the wall of guilt surrounding this damaged little girl. A DESPERATE CRY FOR HELP Twelve-year-old Meg arrives at Maggie's after a fire destroys the children's home she's been living in. Traumatised by the fire and angry and vulnerable, having been put into care by her mother, Meg is lashing out at everyone around her. Can Maggie reach this damaged little girl before it's too late? And before Meg's destructive behaviour puts Maggies life - and the lives of the other children in her care - at risk? These heartwarming and inspiring short stories show the power of a foster mother's love, and her determination to help the children who come into her care. Note: Two of these stories have previously been published as individual ebooks.

A sensitive picture book to help ease the anxieties of foster children aged 4 to 10 entering placement. In A Different Home, Jessie tells us her story of being placed in foster care. At first she is worried and has lots of questions. The new home is not like her old home -- she has a different bedroom, different clothes, and there's different food for breakfast. She also misses her family. When Jim and Debbie, her foster parents, answer her questions she begins to feel better and see that this different home is kind of nice. Written in simple language and fully illustrated in color, this storybook is designed to help children in care, or moving into care, to settle in and answer some of the questions they may have. Accompanied by notes for adults on how to use the story with children, it will be a useful book for foster parents and caseworkers, as well as social workers, teachers and anyone else working with children in foster care.

No matter how positive the intent of prospective parents, international adoption is fraught with emotional, medical, administrative, linguistic, and geopolitical issues. And while a wide range of professionals supports adopted children and their families in adjusting to the inherent changes and disruptions, the pediatrician's tasks--identifying and treating existing health problems and preventing numerous others--are particularly complex. International Adoption and Clinical Practice equips pediatricians with a comprehensive set of tools for establishing a long-term care plan and creating interventions to promote healthy development. This concise guide overviews the intricacies of the international adoption process and how they can affect the pediatrician's job, from potential pitfalls in collecting medical data from a child's birth country to tracking health concerns into adolescence and young adulthood. Developmental and behavioral issues including attachment, language acquisition, identity development, and consequences of abuse and neglect are also examined in this context. Figures, tables, and reference lists complement current information on topics such as: Epidemiology and demographics of international adoption. Pre-adoption evaluation of medical records. Guidelines for diagnostic testing, screening, laboratory evaluations, and immunizations. Common mental health issues faced by adopted children and their families. Long-term and adult outcomes of international adoption. Relevant policy issues and areas for future study. Every child deserves a safe and healthy home, and International Adoption and Clinical Practice gives pediatricians an in-depth framework for helping to make this possible as children make the transition to a new country and the next stage of their lives.

Sprinkle the pig has moved to a new house, with a new family, but he misses his old family. On his first day at school his classmate yells at him, and everything gets too much. He cries and cries, and soon the tears become a river and carry him away! Wise monkey spots Sprinkle, but he is too far away. Can he help Sprinkle to find hidden strengths to survive the river of tears? This therapeutic picture book is written to help children aged 4-10 and adults to talk about being separated from or losing loved ones, and explores how difficult experiences can affect how your body feels and reacts to things. It is followed by easy to read advice for adults on how to help your child.

'Jennie Felton knows how to tell a cracking story and keep the reader gripped... if you enjoy reading books in the style of Catherine Cookson then this one is for you' Books With Wine and Chocolate 'Another superbly woven and character-rich story from a saga author who writes from the heart' Peterborough Telegraph 'Packed full of Jennie's signature strong heroines, this book will keep you guessing' MNR Journal In the grand tradition of Josephine Cox, Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin, comes a powerfully heartrending new saga from Jennie Felton, 'one of the nation's favourite saga writers' (Lancashire Post). A Mother's Sacrifice is a story of family secrets, romance, and triumph in adversity. ................................................................................ Will she be able to save her children? Martha Packer is much loved by everyone in the village of Hillsbridge. As the landlady of The Three Feathers, she runs a respectable establishment and is known for her generosity and care for her family and others around her - she even took in two orphan girls to save them from a life of cruelty in the workhouse. So when Martha announces that she has killed her son, Garth, the community is shocked. Garth was undoubtedly a bad seed, but they knew how much Martha adored her first-born. What could have driven her to such extreme actions? Martha refuses to give a reason, but her other children cannot believe their mother is capable of murder. They begin to believe that she is protecting someone - maybe even one of them... ................................................................................ For more heartwrenching, heartwarming saga, look out for The Stolen Child, out now! And don't miss Jennie's Families of Fairley Terrace series, which began with Maggie's story in All The Dark Secrets and continued with Lucy's story in The Miner's Daughter, Edie's story in The Girl Below Stairs, Carina's story in The Widow's Promise and Laurel's story in The Sister's Secret.

Conversations about multiculturalism rarely consider the position of children, who are presumptively nested in families and communities. Yet providing care for children who are unanchored from their birth families raises questions central to multicultural concerns, as they frequently find themselves moved from communities of origin through adoption or foster care, which deeply affects marginalized communities. This book explores the debate over communal and cultural belonging in three distinct contexts: domestic transracial adoptions of non-American Indian children, the scope of tribal authority over American Indian children, and cultural and communal belonging for transnationally adopted children. Understanding how children belong to families and communities requires hard thinking about the extent to which cultural or communal belonging matters for children and communities, who should have authority to inculcate racial and cultural awareness and under what terms, and, finally, the degree to which children should be expected to adopt and carry forward racial or cultural identities."

One sunny day, Bomji the rabbit and his friend Spotty the cat meet something very scary while picking flowers in the woods. The friends manage to escape, but afterwards Bomji just doesn't feel safe anymore. His body feels a bit different and he starts to have bad dreams. His friend Spotty is worried about Bomji - how can her friend be helped? Luckily, wise Teacher Owl is there for them. This therapeutic picture book allows children and adults to talk about a frightening experience. The story is followed by helpful guidance for adults on how to help their child. It explores how your body and how you feel is affected by scary experiences, and explains how you can use your body to help to recover too.

A tiny puppy, neglected and abused, and the foster carer determined to heal her. When tiny puppy Princess is dumped at the doors of the Barby Keel Animal Sanctuary by her owners, the brown and white boxer is suffering from horrendous injuries resulting from a car accident. Having been operated on by an incompetent vet, her front leg has been amputated in a botched surgery, leaving her weak and barely able to stand. With gentle love and care, Barby and her team at the Sanctuary work hard to give this brave little dog a second lease of life. Playful and loving, despite her difficult start in life, Princess is desperate for a forever family to call her own. But Barby is heartbroken as she watches Princess get rejected over and over again by potential owners who are put off by her terrible injury. Will Princess ever find someone to love her?

'A writer of genuine accomplishment' Good Book Guide A story of adoption and queer parenting from the award-winning author of The Spring of Kasper Meier, The Other Hoffmann Sister and An Honest Man A pause. 'Ah, Herr Fergusson. It's Frau Schwenk.' Our social worker, I now understood. 'Thank you for getting back to me. I'm calling because we have a little boy, four weeks old, who needs a family.' In 2018, after the introduction of marriage equality in Germany, Ben Fergusson and his German husband Tom became one of the first same-sex married couples to adopt in the country. In Tales from the Fatherland Fergusson reflects on his long journey to fatherhood and the social changes that enabled it. He uses his outsider status as both a gay father and a parent adopting in a foreign country to explore the history and sociology of fatherhood and motherhood around the world, queer parenting and adoption and, ultimately, the meaning of family and love. Tales from the Fatherland makes an impassioned case for the value of diversity in family life, arguing that diverse families are good for all families and that misogyny lies at the heart of many of the struggles of straight and queer families alike.

With essays by well-known adoption practitioners and researchers who source empirical research and practical knowledge, this volume addresses key developmental, cultural, health, and behavioral issues in the transracial and international adoption process and provides recommendations for avoiding fraud and techniques for navigating domestic and foreign adoption laws. The text details the history, policy, and service requirements relating to white, African American, Asian American, Latino and Mexican American, and Native American children and adoptive families. It addresses specific problems faced by adoptive families with children and youth from China, Russia, Ethiopia, India, Korea, and Guatemala, and offers targeted guidance on ethnic identity formation, trauma, mental health treatment, and the challenges of gay or lesbian adoptions

This new book from life work expert Joy Rees explains the value of effective and meaningful life work with children who are fostered and adopted, and how best to carry this out. This book will help social work professionals, foster carers and adopters to understand the many aspects of life work and to consider the important contributions they can all make to this task. Life work is about helping children to know and to understand their personal stories and the life experiences that have shaped them. Enabling children to reach their potential and achieve the best possible outcome is the common goal, and this is best achieved by using the collaborative approach to life work advocated in this book

Difficult behaviour in children with developmental trauma comes from a place of hurt. It is often confusing, unpredictable and painful both to the child and the people around them, and can be a form of self-protection or coping with deeply rooted fears and anxieties. Traumatized children rarely respond to traditional parenting strategies, but once you understand the impact of trauma on children you can master 'developmental reparenting' strategies which do work - by validating their feelings, boosting self-esteem and encouraging open and honest conversations. The first part of this book guides you using easy to understand language through the latest science and research relating to trauma and its impact on the brain and executive functioning. The second part forms the heart of the book, laying out 35 action charts to addresses some of the very hardest challenges for parents and carers - from inappropriate sexualised behaviour and overfamiliarity with strangers through to tantrums, food issues and deception. Written by an experienced adoptive parent who was also a qualified social worker with expertise in trauma-informed parenting, this book will be a welcome relief to any family struggling with the challenges of living with trauma in the home.

Providing an authoritative overview of the growing phenomena of child to parent violence - a feature in the daily life of increasing numbers of families - this book outlines what we know about it, what is effective in addressing it, and outlines a proven model for intervention. Based on non-violent resistance (NVR), the model is founded on a number of key elements: parental commitment to non-violence, de-escalation skills, increased parental presence, engaging the support network and acts of reconciliation. The book outlines the theory and principles, and provides pragmatic guidance for implementing these elements, accompanied by case studies to bring the theory to life.

Nurturing Attachments Training Resource is a complete group-work programme containing everything you need to run training and support sessions for adoptive parents and foster or kinship carers. Based on attachment theory and developed by expert author and trainer Kim Golding, this rich resource provides an authoritative set of ideas for therapeutically parenting children along with all the guidance you will need to implement the training. The training resource includes theoretical content and process notes for facilitators, and a range of activities supported by online downloadable content with photocopiable reflective diary sheets, activity sheets and handouts. It is structured into 3 modules with 6 sessions per module. Module 1: Provides an understanding of attachment theory, patterns of attachment and an introduction to therapeutic parenting. Module 2: Introduces the House Model of Parenting, providing guidance on how to help the children experience the family as a secure base. Module 3: Continues exploring the House Model of Parenting, with consideration of how parents can both build a relationship with the children and manage their behaviour. This will be an invaluable resource and one-stop guide for any professionals involved in training foster carers and adoptive parents, as well as residential child care workers and kinship carers.

Written for busy foster carers and adoptive parents, this book provides a concise introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and how to support a child with a diagnosis. It emphasises the common strengths children with ASD have, as well as offering strategies for any behavioural issues that are likely to arise, highlighting how these can be exacerbated by the care system and adoption process. The first part of the book looks at the different aspects of autism and the challenges it can pose for children and parents, providing strategies for managing difficulties at home and at school, using social stories, and reducing sensory input in a child's environment. The second part looks at issues that arise for fostered or adopted children, including placement transitions, contact, and explaining the past. It concludes with helping parents to think about self-care.