Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents
This is a comprehensive guide for prospective and current adoptive parents on ways to understand and care for the adopted child and promote healthy attachment. It provides “practical parenting strategies designed to enhance children’s happiness and emotional health” and explains “what attachment is, how grief and trauma can affect children’s emotional development, and how to improve attachment, respect, cooperation and trust”. The listed parenting techniques are “matched to children’s emotional needs and stages, and checklists are included to help parents assess how their child is doing at each developmental stage”. This book covers a wide range of issues including international adoption, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, and learning disabilities. It is also geared as an important resource for adopted professionals.
Capital Adoptive Families Alliance (CAFA): Support Groups
Capital Adoptive Family Alliance (CAFA) provides a page on the importance of support groups and links to their own support group. The CAFA Support Group offers general support to parents and caregivers raising their adoptive (or soon to be adoptive) children. The support group meetings are free, parent-led, and meet every 4th Thursday.
Adoption Network: “How to Find Support Groups for Adoptive Parents”
This article explains the benefits of parent support groups for parents of adoptees. It includes a section on single parents as well as on couples, and provides a few starting links for those looking.
The North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) offers a search directory that allows people to filter by many different categories in order to find support groups in both the US and Canada. There are around 26 categories that include but are not limited to single parent, birth parent, pre-adoption, and post-adoption. The directory can also be searched alphabetically.
The Family Resource Center is dedicated to “Providing Parents of Children with Disabilities with Information, Training, and Assistance.” Their resource page contains 20 categories on varying subjects for parents of children with disabilities and is available in Spanish.
Child Welfare Information Gateway: “Parenting Your Child With Developmental Delays and Disabilities”
A basic overview on identifying a disability in children, the first steps parents can take to address their child’s needs, and strategies for parenting.
Wrightslaw Yellow Pages for Kids with Disabilities
Yellow Pages for Kids is a directory for resources for kids with disabilities across the United States. It lists consultants, psychologists, tutors, therapists, coaches, and other professionals who serve children with disabilities. Their search tool allows the user to narrow by state, and control+f for a nearby zip code.
The book provides practical and useful advice for parents of children with special needs or other disabilities. It includes sections on: Hiring babysitters and free respite help, Finding the best and kindest doctors, Keeping the family together, taking care of your health and more.
Child Welfare Information Gateway: “Adoption and Guardianship Assistance by State”
This article answers the questions “Does your State provide additional finances or services for medical or therapeutic needs not covered under your State medical plan to children receiving adoption assistance?” It proceeds with a state by state breakdown of whether or not each state does.
NCFA: “A Guide to Adoption Subsidies and Assistance for Adoptive Parents”
This article discusses subsidies that provide additional support for adoptees and their families. It explains what they are, who provides the, who is eligible, the process, and tips for the process.