Children who come home to their forever family at an age older than a newborn are at increased risk for attachment disorders. These children have at least lived with their birth parents, foster family, orphanage, or multiple placements. Broken attachments cause trauma in children. Trauma can lead to attachment issues. If you place a child with attachment issues into a family with two working parents, you risk increasing their trauma. These children are already struggling with abandonment issues. What goes through their little heads each day when they are... more

When you think about special moments spent bonding with your newly adopted daughter, does teeth brushing come to mind? I wrote a blog a couple of months ago about our 10-year-old daughter finally getting her braces. Here is the link if you want some background. Has Your Adopted Daughter Dreamed of Braces? She was a bit young to have braces but she had lost all of her baby teeth. Her excitement helped to rush the process a little. I have never met anyone so ecstatic about getting braces.... more

Have you adopted an older child either from foster care or internationally? If you have, does your child smother friendships? Many of these children suffer from low self-esteem. Therefore, they feel the need to buy friendships. One of my adopted daughters took gifts to a friend every week. They were not expensive gifts. She took things she had made like beaded jewelry, key chains, or bookmarks. She took personal belongings such as lip-gloss or lotion. After several weeks, her friend began to think her behavior was strange. That is when I found out about... more

A new resource is available for students who struggle with educational success because of their ADHD. An organization called The Edge Foundation has begun training coaches to help ADHD students succeed in school and college. Coaching seems to be a new trend in the U.S.A to help young people succeed in the world despite their learning challenges. What does an ADHD coach from The Edge Foundation do for students with ADHD? According to their website, once hired, the Edge Foundation coach will contact the student every... more

A wise friend, Rachel, and I were chatting about our daughters. Both 14-year-old teenagers, both adopted as young children, not infants, both exposed to alcohol before birth. A combination of the Fetal Alcohol exposure, poor early parenting, and possibly genetics has left our daughters challenged. They are challenged academically, developmentally, and socially. That seems to be very common with children like ours. Rachel pointed out that most teenagers are thinking about the direction they will take in life. Most teenagers spend more time with friends and try to... more

Living with a passive aggressive adopted child makes everyday a little more interesting. The unexpected becomes the expected after a few years. The strange and unusual become quite normal at least in your world. It is true; the shock begins to wear off. You are left with sort of a resigned acceptance. After a while, you may even give up reprimanding your child. After all, you are just wasting your breath and amusing your child. Consequences, justice, and remuneration mean nothing to the passive aggressive adopted child. Really, your only hope of stopping the deliberate destruction... more

When you have children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or effect, you come to expect the good days and the bad. You so appreciate the good days. Sometimes you become stuck thinking that is how your children should act all of the time. You may even think that your children could act that way if they wanted. Probably you are getting a glimpse of how your children would be if they had not been exposed to alcohol while forming. Unfortunately, they were exposed to alcohol and it has messed up their brains forever. Trust me; they are not any happier about it than you are.

While... more

The Sensory Processing Disorder Answer Book gives practical answers to the top 250 questions parents ask. Written by Tara Delaney, MS, OTR/L and published by Sourcebooks, Incorporated of Naperville, Illinois. Tara is a pediatric occupational therapist specializing in helping children with sensory processing disorder (SPD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She also adopted a child internationally from China who came home with sensory processing issues.

True the covers says, “answers to the top 250 questions... more

I have been quite impressed by my 14-year-old daughter’s honesty during the last several visits we have made to her psychiatrist. With each visit, she seems to open up a little more to him. This is important for several reasons. First, she is nearing adulthood and would like to live on her own someday. Therefore, it is important for her to not only own her disability but also begin taking over the management of it. Secondly, the doctor cannot help her if she is not honest about how she is doing and feeling. While her doctor and I can see the outward results of her actions,... more

Has your adopted child recently had surgery? It is true that adhesions symptoms are not common with most surgeries. In fact, most go undiagnosed because they do not cause symptoms and are not life threatening. However, they are common after abdominal surgeries and many children do have their appendix removed. Occasionally, children are born with adhesions, but they usually result from the inflammation that accompanies surgery. Adhesions are scar tissues that bind together two surfaces within the body that were not meant to be connected. Painful symptoms can accompany... more