Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past / Edition 2

by Betsy Keefer Smalley, Jayne E. Schooler

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440842818
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/15/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,068,348
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Betsy Keefer Smalley, LSW, is a trainer, curriculum developer, and author.

Jayne E. Schooler, MBS, has worked for many years as an adoption worker and trainer both nationally and internationally.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgments	xv
Chapter 1	The Power of Secrets on Family Relationships	1
Chapter 2	Truth or Consequences: A Great Debate	13
Chapter 3	Just the Facts, Ma'am: Why Do Children Need Them?	25
Chapter 4	A Fact-Finding Mission: How to Gather What You Need to Know	37
Chapter 5	Adoption Through a Child's Eyes: Developmental Stages	53
Chapter 6	Through a Parent's Eyes: Core Issues, Coping Styles, and Communication	71
Chapter 7	The Ten Commandments of Telling: Principles to Consider	87
Chapter 8	Sharing the Hard Stuff: The Adoptive Parent's Challenge	97
Chapter 9	Tools of Communication Between Parents and Children	115
Chapter 10	Transracial or Transcultural Adoption: Talking About Adoption Within a Minority Family	137
Chapter 11	Kinship Foster Care and Adoption: Telling the Truth When It's "All in the Family"	153
Chapter 12	Opening a Closed Adoption for School-Age Children: Questions Most Asked by Parents	165
Chapter 13	Adolescence--Chronic but Not Terminal: Keeping Lines of Communication Open	181
Chapter 14	Opening a Closed Adoption--The Teenage Years	195
Chapter 15	Communicating about Adoption in the Classroom: Teaching the Teachers	211
	Epilogue	223
	Bibliography	225
	Index	229