Parenting Your Adopted School-Age Child

Series Title: Factsheets for Families

Author(s): Child Welfare Information Gateway

Year Published: 2015

(PDF - 443 KB)

This factsheet is designed to help adoptive parents understand and respond to their adopted school-age child's developmental needs. It provides simple, practical strategies to foster healthy development, including approaches for building attachment, talking honestly about adoption, acknowledging the child’s adoptive history, using appropriate discipline, and enhancing the school experience. Because some adoptive families need extra help addressing their children's mental health needs, the factsheet also discusses when and how to seek help.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Understanding the impact of adoption on a child’s development

Communicating about adoption

Disciplining effectively

Improving your child’s school experience

Seeking help for mental or behavioral health concerns

Summary

We also recommend the following Information Gateway publications:

Finding and Using Postadoption Services
(Factsheets for Families)
Parenting Your Adopted Preschooler
(Factsheets for Families)
Parenting Your Adopted Teenager
(Factsheets for Families)

Suggested Citation: Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2015). Parenting your adopted school-age child. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child Welfare Information Gateway.