Useful to: Parent Centers and other organizations addressing the needs and concerns of foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
Very often, foster children have come into care specifically because they have experienced abuse or neglect. Those experiences and other kinds of trauma that may have occurred in their home, including being removed from their birth family, can and often do influence how a child behaves. Foster parents receive specific training during the process to be licensed to foster, to gain a basic understanding of why a foster child behaves the way she does and what they can to help her cope. Once foster parents welcome a foster child into their home, however, they may find that the child’s behaviors are often particularly challenging.
The article Parenting Foster Kids with Challenging Behaviors is short and provides foster parents with multiple resources to consult when addressing their foster child’s challenging behaviors. Such resources include:
- Tantrums, Meltdowns & Whining, Oh, My! How to Parent Challenging Behaviors (article)
- Four Tips to Teach Self-Soothing Skills (article)
- Supporting Kids with Prenatal Exposure in the Transition to Adolescence and Beyond (article)
- Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids (1 hr. podcast w/ expert)
- Parenting Kids with Prenatal Exposure (Part 1): Practical Tips (1 hr. podcast w/ expert)
- Parenting Kids with Prenatal Exposure (Part 2): Transitioning Into Adolescence and Adulthood (1 hr. podcast w/ expert)
Access Parenting Foster Kids with Challenging Behaviors and connect with the various titles above, at:
https://creatingafamily.org/parenting-foster-kids-with-challenging-behaviors/
The article comes from Creating a Family, a national adoption and foster care education and support nonprofit organization, whose mission is to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster, and kinship parents and the professionals who support them.