Talking about Adoption at Different Ages

How to talk with children about adoption at different ages and stages. Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national adoption & foster care education and support nonprofit talks with Mark Lacava, LCSW-R, the Executive Vice President of the Pre and Post Adoption Services Department at Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children.

In this episode, we cover:

How does a child’s understanding of adoption differ by age?
- Toddlers & Preschoolers
- School Age
- Tweens
- Teens
- Young Adults

How can you talk about adoption and the role of the birth father with young children who do not understand the concept of sex?
How does openness or lack of openness impact a child’s understanding of adoption?
How does transracial adoption impact a child’s understanding of adoption?
How to talk about adoption at different ages?
What are the important points you want to make sure your child understands at each stage?
What are some common questions children ask at different developmental stages?
What to say when you know very little about the birth parents?
What to say when what you How to handle the “You’re not my real mom or dad” statement?
How to handle hard birth parent stories? Should you tell a child that they were conceived by rape or that their birth mother is in jail or birth father suffers from addiction? At what age should you share this information?
Kids who show little or no interest in their adoption story.
Creating a Family has a great list of the Best of the Best Adoption books for kids broken out by type of adoption and age of the child.
Creating a Family has a great several great resources on talking with kids about adoption at different ages and stages.
- Talking About Adoption, Part 1: 0-5 Year Olds (blog post)
- Talking About Adoption, Part 2: 6-12 Year Olds (blog post)
- Talking About Adoption, Part 3: Talking with Tweens and Teens (blog post)