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Common Adoption TerminologyAbuse - Many of the children waiting for adoptive families are victims of sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse. Sometimes past abuse is not immediately known and may be revealed later. Abuse can leave children with emotional and behavioral problems that need to be worked through with the help of a knowledgeable professional. The degree of abuse and the impact it has on the child vary greatly.
Adjustment Disorder - The development of emotional or behavioral symptoms such as depression, anxiety, sleeping problems, inappropriate conduct, etc. ~ in response to an identifiable stressful event that are more intense than one would expect from such a stressor.
Adoption Assistance - A program which makes adoption possible for children with special needs. The program assists families with the costs of non-medical related items and provides adoptive parents with resources to help them get services and support which are necessary to meet their child's special needs. This may include monthly financial assistance and Medical Assistance as a backup to the family's health insurance.
Attachment Disorder - The inability of a child to form significant connections with other people. Children who have experienced abuse and neglect, even when very young, will sometimes find it difficult to form significant ties. While they may be very charming, their relationships with others may be superficial. Lying, being out of control, lack of conscience development, and the inability to maintain direct eye contact are among the signs of attachment disorder.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) - A child with ADD is not hyperactive but may have many of the following difficulties: Concentration problems, difficulty following directions, difficulty completing tasks, easily distracted, loses things, and overly messy or overly neat.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - A disorder that involves problems with attention span, impulse control, and activity level. Typical behaviors include: fidgeting, difficulty remaining seated, distractibility, difficulty waiting for turns, difficulty staying on task, difficulty playing quietly, excessive talking, inattention, and engaging in physically dangerous activities without considering consequences.
Bipolar Disorder - A mental illness characterized by cycles of mania and depression. During manic periods, individuals may seem very happy and be hyperactive. In severe episodes, psychotic symptoms may also be present.
Closed Adoption - An adoption in which adoptive families and birth parents have no contact and know limited non-identifying information about each other.
Conduct Disorder - A condition characterized by a strong unwillingness to meet societal norms or expectations.
Cognitive Delays - Delays in the customary development of a person's ability to process information or think logically or analytically.
Depression - A biological-based mental illness which can have long term emotional and physical effects. This may include feelings of worthlessness, guilt, indecision, difficulty concentrating, loss of energy, difficulty with interpersonal relationships, among other effects. This is a serious medical condition which may be treated with medication and psychotherapy.
Developmental Disabilities - Is often used to describe a variety of conditions, with implications ranging from mild to severe. It is usually used to describe a condition or disorder ~ physical, cognitive, or emotional ~ that interferes with a child's normal progress.
Disrupted Adoption - Occasionally, an adoptive family terminates an adoption. When this happens, the child returns to foster care and reenters the Minnesota Waiting Children Program.
Emotional Behavioral Disorder (EBD) - Children who are diagnosed with emotional or behavioral disorders have an established pattern of behavior characterized by one or more of the following:
Emotional Disabilities - Some children, due to their past history, genetics, or both, must cope with emotional difficulties in their daily living. These children may require special therapeutic school programs and special living arrangements. The school programs usually have varying levels.
Educable Mental Retardation (EMR) - Mental retardation affects people in different ways. Some have educable retardation, meaning they can be educated and trained for future responsibilities. EMR classes and programs help them achieve a level of independence. The school programs usually have varying levels.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) or Fetal Alcohol Effect (FAE) - Conditions that result from alcohol use by the birth mother during pregnancy. Children born with FAS or FAE can have organic brain damage, low birth weight, birth defects, mental retardation, and learning impairments in varying degrees.
Impulse Control Disorder - A mental disorder characterized by an individual's recurrent failure to resist impulsive behaviors that may be harmful to themselves or others.
Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) - A 1978 federal law that protects the rights of Native American children, families, and tribes. ICWA states that when placing a Native American child for adoption, preference should be given to extended family, tribal members, a Native American foster or adoptive family, or a Native American institution. The tribe has the right to make decisions regarding the Native American child's placement, and non-Native American families are considered for placement as a last resort. ICWA adoption provisions do not, however, apply to every Native American child in foster care - especially in cases where the children's Native American birth parents are not registered tribe members, or the tribes have given up their claim on the children.
Individual Education Plan (IEP) - A plan drawn up by a child's special education teacher and other parties that outlines specific skills the child needs to develop as well as learning activities that build on the child's strengths.
Learning Disabilities (LD) - Some children find learning in a regular classrooms difficult. Children with learning disabilities may be of average or above average intelligence, but have difficulty learning, sorting, and storing information. LD classes may be recommended to help them achieve their potential in school.
Legal-risk Adoption - The placement of a child into an adoptive home when the birth parents' rights have not yet been terminated.
Loss and Grief Issues - Emotional distress which can result from being removed from a child's birth family, loss of a parent through death or abandonment, multiple moves in the foster care system, or termination of parental rights. When unresolved, this may cause depression and acting out behaviors.
Mainstreamed - In school, when a child is moved to a regular classroom from a room where he or she receives extra help or special services.
Neglect - The failure of parents to meet the basic human needs of their children. This may include situations where children have been abandoned, or where there was a lack of care and support due to a parent's chemical use, or situations where parents neglected or refused to provide the child with proper food, clothing, shelter, nurturing, education, or medical care.
Open Adoption - An adoption which involves some amount of contact between birth parents and adoptive parents, ranging from the exchange of information through an agency to direct contact and exchange of names.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) - A disorder such as frequent loss of temper, a tendency to argue with adults, refusal to obey adult requests, deliberate behaviors to annoy others, spiteful and vindictive behavior, use of obscene language, and a tendency to blame others for mistakes. Symptoms sometimes indicate the early stage of conduct disorder.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - Develops when a child experiences, witnesses, or is confronted with an extremely traumatic event. This could include actual or threatened death, serious injury or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others. These incidents cause the child to experience intense fear, helplessness, or horror. The child may also exhibit various physical symptoms related to this disorder.
Pre-Natal Drug Exposure - Cocaine or other drugs used during pregnancy can significantly increase the risk of damage to the child's nervous system. Children exposed to drugs in-utero may appear stiff and rigid, have prolonged and piercing crying episodes, are easily over stimulated, and face an increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Long term effects are uncertain.
Reactive Attachment Disorder - A condition resulting from an early lack of nurturing and consistent care, characterized by an inability to make appropriate social contact with others. Symptoms include developmental delays, lack of eye contact, feeding disturbance, hypersensitivity to touch and sound, failure to initiate or respond to social interaction, indiscriminate sociability, self stimulation, and susceptibility to infection.
Residential Care - Structured live-in treatment for children with emotional and/or behavioral difficulties. This residential treatment may last months or up to a year, depending on individual needs. It generally includes a school component.
Separation Anxiety - Persistent and excessive anxiety about being separated from a person's caregiver which interferes with normal, daily activities.
Special Education - Specialized educational services incorporated to deal with disabilities with intelligence, language, behavior, or social and emotional development. This child typically has difficulty learning in a regular classroom.
Special Needs - Conditions which may make some children harder to place. This may include emotional or physical disorders, age, race, history of abuse and neglect, or members of sibling groups.
Termination of Parental Rights(TPR) - A court process in which a birth parent's legal rights and responsibilities are permanently removed or terminated.
Waiting Children - Children in the child welfare system who cannot return to their birth home. These children often have special needs and require special care and permanent homes in which they can grow up safely and securely.
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Copyright © 2003 Lincoln, Lyon, Murray Human Services
