Social and educational needs for adoptive children with special needs

Social and Educational Opportunities for Adoptive Children With Special Needs

How many adopted children with special needs are there in the U.S. A 2008 publication put out by the U.S. Health & Human Services (HHS) department explains that there were an estimated 470,000 adopted children with special health care needs, and that was 4.6% of all children in the U.S. with special health care needs. Sixty-five percent of those children were Caucasian; 11.8% were Hispanic; 16.3% were "non-Hispanic black" and 1.6% Asian.

When a child is adopted who has special needs, it places a great deal of responsibility on the parents to find and utilize all the available resources for that child. What are those special needs? The Adoption.com site presents a list of special needs, including: a) disabilities (mental, physical and emotional disabilities can be mild or severe; along with disabilities come some behavioral problems); b) some consider the fact that the adopted child is a minority places that child in the category of special needs; the problem lies in the fact that there are not enough families available to adopt a minority race child; c) a child that is between the age of 5 to 8 can be consider a special needs child ("older child"); in adoption, parents always strive to get the child into their family at a young age; d) "at risk" children are those with hearing problems, learning disabilities, and physical or behavioral disabilities (www.adoption.com).

What should prospective parents -- who are waiting to adopt a child with special needs -- understand about that child's requirements? Adoptive parents should be prepared to deal with "all types of outcomes, from the bleak to the near-miraculous," according to Adopt.com. That is because of the waiting children with special needs -- those younger than school age -- many have "mild to severe disabilities" or are at a certain level of risk of "developing disabilities."

Among the severe disabilities that a child may have -- a child up for adoption -- is visual impairment. The Adoption.com site recommends several adjustments a family can make,, in order to satisfy her special needs, including not rushing over to the child if she is crying. If the child is crying, for whatever reason, adoptive parents should speak to her as they move closer to her so she knows they are coming. A voice is as good as a touch, in this case. When picking her up at night, have a soft conversation with her as you approach and give her the night feeding.

The Child Welfare Information Gateway (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- HHS) publishes a guide that points to an assistance program from the federal government for families that adopt children with special needs. And in some states, the subsidies are to help the parents with the costs of adoption (social needs, physical needs, medical needs) . The payments from the government are under Title XIX (Medicaid) and Title XX, and depend on the "adoptive family's income and resources" (HHS). If the families spend the money on the child's support, it is not taxable, HHS explains.

One of the most common reasons for stress among families who adopt special needs children is education. The director of the Center for Adoption Support & Education, Debbie Riley, writes that while school success and family relationships have "a reciprocal relationship" there are often difficult challenges associated with an adopted child with special needs attending school (Riley, 2009). Those challenges include learning problems that the parents did not know about but the teacher and the school learned when the child began attending classes.

"Some disabilities do not reveal themselves right away," said the mother of Matthew, one of the parents quoted in the Adoptive Issues article. It turns out Matthew's needs were "extensive" because he had ADHD, neurological and visual problems. Parents need support in this situations; indeed, Richard Barth (University of North Carolina researcher) states that in surveys of adoptive parents "school is named as a common family stressor." Hence parents should get in touch with the Learning Disabilities Association of America to find out how they can get help for their child. Or go to www.wrightslaw.com.

Adoptive children who suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) do indeed have special needs -- they have complex medical needs, including "a pattern of dysmorphic facial features," dental anomalies, possible cardiac defects and vision and hearing problems as well, according to the Children's House International Adoptions group (CHIA). These children will have very serious social and educational needs because they "tend to be curious" sexually as adolescents and have little understanding of "socially appropriate sexual behavior." They may need to be placed in "special education classes" in elementary school, in a small classroom with "a great deal of individual attention" (CHIA).