Resources
The Adoption Home Study Process
Educate and prepare the prospective parent or family for adoption
Help agencies evaluate the capability and suitability of the prospective parent or family to adopt
Help social workers or home study specialists gather information about the prospective parent or family to help ensure that each child or youth is placed with the family that can best meet their needs
Parenting Your Adopted Teenager
The teenage years bridge the transition from childhood to young adulthood. It is a time of enormous change and development, when youth forge an identity and embrace new interests. Adoption adds complexity to the normal development of teenagers, regardless of whether they were adopted as infants or when they were older. This factsheet is designed to help adoptive parents understand the needs and experiences of their teen and use practical strategies to foster healthy development. These strategies include approaches that acknowledge potential trauma and loss, support effective communication, promote independence, and address possible behavioral and mental health concerns.
Understanding children’s behavior and helping them heal
Parents often ask Kim why a child is exhibiting certain behaviors. Is it biological or environmental? Kim’s answer: It’s both! And it’s not the child’s fault. These are a few reasons why:
The lizard brain guides much of our behavior. Brain science tells us that 80 percent of human behavior is driven by the lower and mid-levels of the brain. Scientists call the large lower area of the brain the “lizard brain,” because it is all about instinctive reacting. The mid-level is similar in that it reacts with little thought processing.
Why is this important?
Parenting in racially and culturally diverse adoptive families
In the past, the prevailing advice for parents who adopted children of a race or culture different from theirs was to love and raise them from a “colorblind” perspective, as if the races and cultures of the children were not an important part of their identities. But adults who were raised with this approach and other experts say that when parents ignore their child’s racial and cultural origins, the journey to a healthy identity can be lonely, confusing, and even traumatic.
transracial adoption – intentional cross-race parenting
Parenting a child of color brings unique and heightened considerations and responsibilities in a racialized society. In particular, because white people have not been confronted with the reality of living as a person of color, it is crucial for white parents to actively engage and educate themselves about the history and experiences of people of color in America.