Creating a Family Adoption & Foster Care Education

Children understand adoption differently at different ages and stages of development. How do you talk with your kids about adoption? In this course, we talk with Mark Lacava, LCSW-R,  the Executive Vice President of the Pre and Post Adoption Services Department at Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children about how parents can talk about adoption with their children.

The course covers the following topics:

•  How does a child’s understanding of adoption differ by age?
  • Toddlers & Preschoolers
  • School Age
  • Tweens
  • Teens
  • Young Adults
• How can you talk about adoption and the role of the birth father with young children who do not understand the concept of sex?
• How does openness or lack of openness impact a child’s understanding of adoption?
• How does transracial adoption impact a child’s understanding of adoption?
• How to talk about adoption at different ages?
• What are the important points you want to make sure your child understands at each stage?
• What are some common questions children ask at different developmental stages?
• What to say when you know very little about the birth parents?
• How to handle the “You’re not my real mom or dad” statement?
• How to handle hard birth parent stories? Should you tell a child that they were conceived by rape or that their birth mother is in jail or birth father suffers from addiction? At what age should you share this information?
• Kids who show little or no interest in their adoption story.

*Your course will remain active for 180 days from purchase date.