Infant adoption, child adoption, domestic adoption - Hoping to Adopt a Child With Special Needs

12/21/07

Hoping to Adopt a Child With Special Needs

Posted by : Faith Allen in Hoping to Adopt Blog at 05:27 am , 493 words, 237 views
Categories: Health Risks

On my post, Hoping to Adopt a Cute Child, Chromesthesia posted the following comment:

All babies are cute. I'm looking into Special Needs adoption. I go to do more research on it though. - Chromesthesia

Chromesthesia is wise to do a lot of research before choosing to adopt a child with special needs. Parenting a child with special needs is hard work, and hopeful adoptive parents need to enter into the adoption with their eyes wide open.

Emotional Special Needs

Many people who are new to adoption have the misperception that they can love a child enough to heal them. While your efforts might pay off with some children, all the love in the world will not reach others until they are ready to receive that love.

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Before adopting a child who has emotional special needs, learn all you can about what is required to meet those needs, and talk to experienced parents of children with emotional special needs. Learn how to identify which children are more likely to be reached. Educate yourself about the best way to help the children heal. Most importantly, make sure that you feel able to live with a child with emotional special needs.

Physical Special Needs

Before adopting a child with a physical special need, learn all you can about how to care for the child. Make sure that you feel up to the challenge before taking on the responsibility involved.

My son has asthma. Caring for his asthma can be challenging. I have had to learn how to keep a cool head while administering medication to a child who is having trouble breathing. I do not have the luxury of panicking because my son needs me to be calm.

Make sure the special need is a good fit. For example, if you faint at the sight of blood, then adopting a child with hemophilia would not be a good match.

Behavioral Special Needs

Parenting a child with behavioral special needs, such as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or Tourette Syndrome, is challenging. My son has ADHD, and I have shed many tears over how to parent him because parenting strategies that work well with most children simply do not work with him. I have a friend whose son has Tourette Syndrome, and she faces different, but equally as challenging, issues. Both of us have had many conferences with teachers, the school counselor, and the principal. If your child has a behavioral special need, you will need to be prepared to work closely with the school and advocate for your child.

Children with special needs deserve loving homes, and they need parents who are equipped to handle their special needs. Do lots of research about the special need you are considering and make sure you feel ready to take on the added responsibility of parenting a child with that particular special need.

Related Blogs:

Parenting Children with Special Needs Blog

Reactive Attachment Disorder Blog

Photo credit: Lynda Bernhardt

3 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Chromesthesia [Member]

Yeah, this will take a lot of research, preperation, insurance that is really good about existing conditions, trying to find counselors and support who know about the issues. There's a great need to adopt children with HIV when they are born. They have an 85% chance of not having it later, but there's still a lot of research that would go into that, like how to avoid infection from body fluids or something. Then there is drug exposure to consider. I don't know how that will effect a child other than ADHD, developmental delays, touch sensitivity, so that will involve a lot of research too, but there's a big need for homes for children with special needs here and abroad But it's not a good idea to get a special needs child because it's faster and slightly cheaper because in the long run a lot of expense could be out of pocket for medicine and the like.

Permalink 12/21/07 @ 11:13

Comment from: John [Member]

My experience is that adopting a special needs child means being focused, determined (as in over my dead body will I quit), creative both in parenting and creating a network, and flexible. We aren't going to do what other parents do, and we will have the privilege of dealing with arm chair experts. We have to advocate for our kids, and being nice and well liked doesn't hold a candle to getting the services that our kids need. The satisfaction of getting the job done, and having a child make it who wasn't going to is way beyond wonderful. John

Permalink 12/21/07 @ 13:16

Comment from: Faith Allen [Member]

· http://hoping.adoptionblogs.com/

Very well put, John. - Faith

Permalink 12/21/07 @ 15:49

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