Trauma-Informed Foster and Adoptive Parenting: Methods for Managing Meltdowns, Mishaps, and Maladaptive Behaviors

Many foster and adoptive parents lose hope when they experience challenging and oppositional child behaviors. This book gives parents the tools and strategies to respond to these outbursts - particularly those that stem from a child’s potentially traumatic history.

Drawing from behavioral research within an attachment and neurobiological framework, this transformative book offers practical guidance for foster and adoptive parents and professionals who seek to better understand and respond to a child with maladaptive behaviors. Based on his clinical expertise and his personal experience of being a foster and adoptive parent, Dr. David Adams highlights how trauma can impact children’s brains and behaviors. With a comprehensive model for each behavior, this guide offers evidence-based strategies that parents can use to both avoid and respond to the most common behaviors including lying, disrespect, hoarding, and defiance. Complete with sample scripts, this book equips readers with the knowledge and tools to become more aware, responsive, and empathetic.

This invaluable guide is designed for parents and caregivers of foster and adopted children, as well as family therapists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals who work with these children and their families.

David Adams, Psy.D, LPCC, BCBA-D. is a proud adoptive parent, a licensed psychologist, and a licensed professional counselor. He is Clinic Director at Meier Clinics in Laguna Hills, a part-time professor at National University (ABA, School Psychology, Educational Counseling Dept.), and an expert trainer of Foster Care Kinship Education (FCKE) at Saddleback College.