Adoption Issues

Approximately 2% of children in the United States are adopted. Families built by adoption appreciate when school's use positive adoption language http://www.holt/language.shtml. Generally Preschool to First Graders feel special and positive about being adopted. Beginning in second grade children understand the loss part of the adoption triad. It is not uncommon for children ages 7 and up to have ambivalent feelings around their birthday. Nancy Verrier says in The Primal Wound of the child adopted at birth, “There seems to be an anniversary reaction (also felt by the birth mother), which sends many adoptees into despair around their birthdays… is it any wonder that many adoptees sabotage their birthday parties? Why would one want to celebrate the day they were separated from their birth mothers? The adoptees, of course, have probably never really understood, themselves, why they do this.” As a school counselor it is important to be knowledgeable about adoption. Counselors can also help teachers be sensitive about adoption  adoption/adopt-parenting/school/teachers/