Tips for Raising a Transracial Adoptee

Parenting a child who is a different race or culture than you requires extra education and preparedness to be ready for culture and identity issues.  You will have the tremendous responsibility of helping your child navigate issues of race, culture, and identity in ways that those who are parenting same-race children do not. How can you raise a transracial adoptee to have a healthy sense of identity and race?

Typical Behaviors of Children Adopted Internationally

What are some behaviors that are typical of children adopted internationally? How can parents help their children overcome these behaviors. We talked with Leah Strom, a social worker who has worked in the Child Welfare community for nearly 20 years. She is the Director of Social Work for International and Domestic adoption at Children’s Home Society & LSS of Minnesota.

44 Children’s Books About Mental Health

From a hedgehog too anxious to go ice skating to a puppy who can’t make his letters come out right, children’s books address many emotional, behavioral and learning challenges kids face. These books help kids name and understand feelings and experiences they may be struggling with. At the Child Mind Institute we’ve contacted publishers all over to call in books that address mental health and learning disorders and other common challenges, like dealing with painful experiences and coping with strong emotions. 

 

Establishing Secure Attachment with Your New Foster or Adopted Tween or Teen

When we are parenting children who have only known chaos, self-survival, or trauma, we might feel helpless, incapable, and stressed. That anxiety can trigger our own self-survival reactions, which can reinforce our child’s coping skills of anxiety, fear, or survival instincts. Establishing secure attachment with adopted or foster tweens and teens is rooted in our ability to regulate our own emotions and stress.