How foster care affects children in your home?

Maturity: Your children will learn about grief and loss. As foster children experience losses, your child will learn how the losses of others impact them. They will also have the opportunity to experience their own grief and loss as foster children come and go from their lives. This does not have to be negative.

What causes behavioral problems in a foster child?

Regardless of your diligence and good intentions as an educator, case worker or caregiver, behavioral problems in foster children can arise at anytime. Foster children suffer from social, emotional and physical distress because of traumatic experiences, chaos and stress in life.

Is it common for children in foster care to be difficult?

It is common for children and adolescents in foster care and adoptive situations to exhibit challenging behaviors, some of which can be severe. It is equally common for parents providing care to these children to become upset and overwhelmed by what they see.

How does stress affect children in foster care?

Foster-care children who have experienced repeated trauma such as violence and abuse react to stress with a number of problematic behaviors occurring out of confusion, fear, aggression and sadness.

What are the issues with Tony in foster care?

Tony has been taking stimulant medication for the past 3 years. While in the assessment facility, Tony demonstrates highly disruptive behavior, including property destruction, physical aggression, and self-injurious behavior. He also makes suicidal and homicidal threats.

Are there behavioral issues in adopted and foster children?

Adopted and foster children, like all children, have individualized behaviors and needs. The behaviors learned and shaped in institutionalized living and foster care placement, as well as those which result due to a major disruption in life, require special attention.

It is common for children and adolescents in foster care and adoptive situations to exhibit challenging behaviors, some of which can be severe. It is equally common for parents providing care to these children to become upset and overwhelmed by what they see.

How to understand difficult behavior in foster children?

By remembering what this child was experiencing during their formative years, we can better understand the behaviors we are seeing now.

Foster-care children who have experienced repeated trauma such as violence and abuse react to stress with a number of problematic behaviors occurring out of confusion, fear, aggression and sadness.