Helpful Articles for Adoptive Families

General

Lifelong Issues in Adoption

Seven Core Issues in Adoption

A Psychosocial Model of Adoption Adjustment

Impact of Adoption on Adopted Persons

Impact of Adoption on Adopted Parents

The Post-Adoption Life: Supporting Adoptees, Birth Parents, and Families After Adoption

Ages and Stages

Adoption and the Stages of Development: What Parents Can Expect

Building an Adoptive Identity: It’s Not Just about Adolescence Anymore

Adoption and Adolescence

The Joys and Challenges of Parenting Older Adopted Children

Parenting Your Adopted Teenager

Social Media and Your Foster or Adopted Teens: 4 Risks and What You Can Do

Delayed Launching: Adopted Adolescents and the Not-So-Empty-Nest

Sibling Relationships

Sibling Issues in Foster Care and Adoption

Sibling Issues in Adoption

Adoption and Sibling Relationships: What Children Have Taught Me

Biological Siblings of Adopted Children

Family Roles and Characteristics

Sibling Rivalry - Lots of valuable information and tips!

Adoption and Sibling Rivalry

Beyond Sibling Rivalry

Talking about Adoption

Positive Adoption Language

Talking with Your Children about Adoption

Talking to Your Child about Adoption: Recommendations for Parents

8 Ways to Help Kids Handle Questions about Adoption

Helping Classmates Understand Adoption


Trauma

What is Child Traumatic Stress?

The 12 Core Concepts: Concepts for Understanding Traumatic Stress Responses in Children and Families

Parenting After Trauma: Understanding Your Child’s Needs – A Guide for Foster and Adoptive Parents

The Adopted Child: Trauma and Its Impact

Supporting Maltreated Children: Countering the Effects of Neglect and Abuse

Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Lifelong Consequences of Trauma

Helping Traumatized Children: A Brief Overview for Caregivers

Effective Treatments for Youth Trauma

Attachment, Self-Regulation, & Competency (ARC)

Grief and Loss

Grief and Loss throughout the Lives of Adopted Children

Embracing the Grief of Adoption

Grief Speaks

Attachment

Attachment and the School Age Child

Emotional Attachments in Adopted Children

The Healing Power of “Giving Voice”

Subtle Signs

Transracial Adoption

A Transracially-Adopted Child’s Bill of Rights

Seven Tasks for Parents: Developing Positive Racial Identity

Many Layers of Racial Identity

Race and Identity in Transracial Adoption: Suggestions for Adoptive Parents

Transracial Parenting in Foster Care and Adoption: Strengthening Your Bicultural Family

5 Reasons to Talk to Your Kids about Race

Transracial Adoption: Love is Just the Beginning

Beyond Culture Camp

Dealing with Racism: Perspective of a White Transracial Adoptive Parent

If You’re Color Blind, How Do You See Me?

“Racially Conscientious” Parenting in a “Colorblind” Society

Unpacking the Knapsack of White Privilege

International/Intercountry Adoption

Attachment in International Adoption

Fostering Successful Attachment in Intercountry Adoption

A Healthy Beginning

Nutrition Basics by Country

Recognizing FASD-Related Speech and Language Deficits in Internationally Adopted Children

Reactive Attachment Disorder in Adoptees

Protecting the Rights of Intercountry Adoptees: Steps to Ensure the Right of Citizenship for Every Adopted Individual

Acquiring US Citizenship for Your Child

Health Concerns

Assessment: The Why’s and What’s

Adoption Nutrition

Overlapping Behavioral Characteristics and Related Mental Health Diagnoses in Children

Issues Facing Adoptive Parents of Children with Special Needs

Living with a Chronic Illness or Disability

Attachment Issues and Reactive Attachment Disorder

FASD Identification

Raising Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

About SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder)

The ADHD Diagnosis Guide for Kids

The Five S’s: Staying Calm and Centered

Bring out the Best in Your Children

Selecting and Working with a Therapist Skilled in Adoption

Specific Evidence-Based Treatment Methods

When Things Aren’t Perfect: Caring for Yourself and Your Children

Birth Families

Talking to Adopted Children about Birth Parents and Families of Origin: How to Answer the “Hard Questions”

Openness in Adoption: Building Relationships Between Adoptive and Birth Families

Searching for Birth Relatives

Setting Boundaries in Open Adoption

Adopted Children are Searching for their Birth Parents through Social Media

Therapists and Mental Health Professionals

Selecting and Working with a Therapist Skilled in Adoption

Mental Health Professionals’ Attitudes and Expectations about Adoption and Adopted Children

A Need to Know: Adoption Competence among Mental Health Professionals


Advocacy

NCFA’s 2016 Policy Priorities and Adoption-Related Legislation

Policy & Advocacy

Keeping the Promise: The Case for Adoption Support and Preservation

Advocating for Post-Adoption Support: Tools to Promote Parent-Led and Child-Driven Services

Children of Trauma: What Educators Need to Know

Special Education: An Advocate’s Manual

MPAS Sample Letters from Special Education: An Advocate's Manual