Talking With Children About Adoption

The Center For Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) is offering a webinar again on "Talking With Children About Adoption". "Parents often lack confidence when it comes to discussing adoption with their children. This webinar teaches parents what children think and feel about adoption at different developmental stages and how to share their child's adoption story. Ms. Singer will address participants' specific concerns and questions regarding "what, when and how" to share difficult/sensitive information as well as how to respond to children's questions. Participants will learn how to initiate comfortable communication with children who do not ask questions. Learn about 52 Ways to Talk about Adoption, a new game C.A.S.E. created to facilitate family discussion of adoption."

Check out the link here for more information and to sign up.

The 2011 Adoption Guide

Here is a link to the 2011 Adoption Guide. It is a great resource for families that are just getting started in the adoption process. You can download the entire resource for free through this website!

My Forever Family

Song written by Tommy Byrd and Ande Rasmussen


In my life I've
Never known
Where it is
That I belong
Maybe you could
Be that place for me
This I wish
This I pray
This I hope
And dream some day
I will find my forever
Family

Chorus
Take a look at me
There's so much to see
Who I am and all I can be
You can't change the world
But you can change mine for me
Take a look in your heart and see
If there's a place there for me
Could we be a forever family
Could we be a forever family

A day becomes
A week so fast
And Soon another
Year has passed
And I'm still here
Waiting hopefully
Someday soon
I just know
Like the dream
I can't let go
I will find my forever
Family

Chorus Repeats

In my life I've
Never known
Where it is
That I belong
Maybe you could
Be that place for me
This I wish
This I pray
This I hope
And dream some day
I will find my forever
Forever Family

Check out this website to listen to the song and this website to read more about the song.

Human Connections Start With A Friendly Touch

This is a really neat article about how friendly touch can help build feelings of trust and form connections with other people. A word of caution though, do be aware of what YOUR child considers friendly touch. Some children who have been abused do not like being touched in any way. Know what YOUR child needs. Check it out here.

Improving your Child's Behavior...Permanently

This is an easy parenting technique from the Complete Connection Parenting website to help improve children's listening skills. Check it out here.

Helping Parents Comprehend Potential for Suicide

The following Webinar is provided by Well Aware:

GUIDING LIGHT: Helping parents comprehend potential for suicide in their children


An experienced elementary-level teacher with a master’s degree in education and "tons of psychology courses," Wisconsin educator Lynda Larson was still unable to recognize early signs of mental illness in her fifth-grade son Adam, the eldest of her three children. "I remember the principal in my elementary school had a whole lot of background on troubled adolescents," recalls Lynda, with the clarity of hindsight. "He spoke to me about Adam and the signs he saw for potential trouble later. He even put an EAP (employee assistance program) slip in my mailbox at school." Lynda saw her former boss nine years later, after her son had dropped out of high school and endured years of substance abuse. He ended his own life on April 22, 1992, at age 20. "I told my former principal, ‘You saw this coming a long time ago, didn’t you?’ But as parents, we didn’t accept it at the time. He was our first child. We didn’t accept the message right away."
- AS REPORTED IN THE JANUARY 2006 ISSUE OF ADVANCING SUICIDE PREVENTION MAGAZINE


It’s among the most horrific thoughts a parent can have—their own child dying by suicide. So it’s no wonder that parents of at-risk youth may have trouble accepting that their son or daughter may have the capacity to kill themselves.



While teachers, relatives or clergy members may recognize risk for suicide in a child, parents may be unable to see this. “The parents are in denial” may be how others see it, but from a parent’s perspective, facing the fact that your child could be suicidal is more than many parents can emotionally bear.



“We know psychiatric illness runs in families. There’s also a lot of resistance to addressing it, to treatment within the general population,” says the esteemed David Shaffer, M.D., professor psychiatry and pediatrics at Columbia University and an international expert in youth suicide prevention. “A parent may think, ‘I haven’t seen it with my own eyes’.”



There are many reasons parents may be unable to comprehend potential for suicide in their children. And others—teachers, pediatricians, police officers, community members—need to understand these barriers parents face in order to help at-risk children.



In this groundbreaking webinar, we are pleased to present Donna Holland Barnes, Ph.D., suicidology researcher, educator, author, parent and suicide loss survivor. 

Also joining Dr. Barnes is Raymond Zablotny, M.D., physician, psychiatrist—and father of a son who died by suicide. Together, Dr. Barnes and Dr. Zablotny bring their unique perspectives to consider how others can help parents “hear” that their child might be at risk for suicide.


Tuesday, Oct. 18th, 2011

2-3:30 PM Central

Click here to register.

Helping Your Child Say Goodbye

Here is another great article on how to help your child transition into your adoptive home. This article contains suggestions on how to maintain connections with your child's past, including with their foster and/or birth parents, how to discuss with your child the confusing emotions they are probably feeling, and many other helpful suggestions. Check it out here.

Talking With Teachers

School has already been back in session for over a month now!! This time of year all families are faced with challenges as their children head back to school and adoptive families can be faced with additional challenges. Adoptive families have to decide how much they want to tell the teacher about their child's adoption and children are being faced with questions from peers about their adoptions. This is a great article that talks about what should be discussed in a parent teacher meeting regarding adoption. Check it out here.

The Great Back-to-School Kit

Here is an article from Adoptive Families with "17 simple and effective ways to bring adoption into the classroom." Check it out here!

Is It An Adoption Thing?

I get asked the question a lot, "Is this an adoption thing or is it a typically developing child thing?" It is hard for parents to know what challenging behaviors are developmentally appropriate and what behaviors are related to their child's adoption history. "Is It An Adoption Thing", a webinar offered by Adoption Learning Partners, will discuss common challenging behaviors adopted children may exhibit at each developmental stage, offer real life examples and suggestions for handling these behaviors and examine effective and ineffective parenting tools. For more information or to register go to Adoption Learning Partners.