Parenting

Parenting fostered children is different from parenting those children raised in effective and nurturing birth family situations. This is due to the effect which early trauma, neglect and abuse can have on the child’s developing brain, on their ability to trust the world around them and the adults who care for them.

This section includes information on child development but also information on

• the ways in which these early difficulties can affect children,
• therapeutic parenting,
• attachment and approaches intended to encourage positive attachments (such as Theraplay and PACE)
• the impact of caring for traumatised children on carers themselves,
• ways in which extended family, friends and others ( eg church communities) can support adoptive and foster parents and the children too
• identity, life story and telling (about a child’s birth family and the events which led them into care)