Adopted children have special needs that adoptive, first, and foster parents must learn in order to become their child’s #1 cheerleader.
Use this list as needed and as age-appropriate for discussing special needs with your child. You might say, “An adopted person wrote a list of her special needs. Would you be interested in seeing it? I’m curious if you identify with any of the needs that are mentioned.”
Remember, with young children, keep it simple-rephrase into kid speak, and stick with the words: SAD, MAD, GLAD ANGRY.
Scripture verses are included for those who want them.
EMOTIONAL NEEDS:
- I need help in recognizing my adoption loss and grieving it. (Ecclesiastes 1:18)
- I need to be assured that my birth parents’ decision not to parent me had nothing to do with anything defective in me. (Proverbs 34:5)
- I need help in learning to deal with my fears of rejection–to learn that absence doesn’t mean abandonment, nor a closed door that I have done something wrong. (Genesis 50:20)
- I need permission to express all my adoption feelings and fantasies. (Psalm 62.8)
EDUCATIONAL NEEDS:
- I need to be taught that adoption is both wonderful and painful, presenting lifelong challenges for everyone involved. (Ezekiel 17:10a, Romans 11:24)
- I need to know my adoption story first, then my birth story and birth family. (Isaiah 43:26)
- I need to be taught healthy ways for getting my special needs met. (Philippians 4:12)
- I need to be prepared for hurtful things others may say about adoption and about me as an adoptee. (John 1:11)
VALIDATION NEEDS:
- I need validation of my dual-heritage (biological and adoptive). (Psalm 139:16b)
- I need to be assured often that I am welcome and worthy. (Isaiah 43:4, Zephaniah 3:17)
- I need to be reminded often by my adoptive parents that they delight in my biological differences and appreciate my birth family’s unique contribution to our family through me. (Proverbs 23:10)
PARENTAL NEEDS:
- I need parents who are skillful at meeting their own emotional needs so that I can grow up with healthy role models and be free to focus on my development, rather than taking care of them. (II Corinthians 12:15)
- I need parents who are willing to put aside preconceived notions about adoption and be educated about the realities of adoption and the special needs adoptive families face. (Proverbs 23:12, Proverbs 3: 13-14, Proverbs 3:5-6)
- I need my adoptive and birth parents to have a non-competitive attitude. Without this, I will struggle with loyalty issues. (Psalm 127:3)
RELATIONAL NEEDS:
- I need friendships with other adoptees. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
- I need to taught that there is a time to consider searching for my birth family, and a time to give up searching. (Ecclesiastes 3:4)
- I need to be reminded that if I am rejected by my birth family, the rejection is symptomatic of their dysfunction, not mine. (John 1:11)
SPIRITUAL NEEDS:
- I need to be taught that my life narrative began before I was born and that my life is not a mistake. (Jeremiah 1:5a, Ephesians 1:11)
- I need to be taught in this broken, hurting world, loving families are formed through adoption as well as birth. (Psalm 68:6)
- I need to be taught that I have intrinsic, immutable value as a human being.
- I need to be taught that any two people can make love but only God can create life. He created my life and I’m not a mistake. (John 1:3)
Your greatest challenge as a parent is to first identify the special need that has arisen and then to help your child verbalize it. This gives him some sense of mastery and control over something that feels out of his control. Helping your child heal is largely centered on honest, productive dialogue between you and your child.
Once you as a parent gain such a depth of understanding of your child’s special needs, you will be able to give him the support he needs not only now but throughout all of life. His special needs, in turn, will become deep wells of personal strength and empathy within him as he grows older.
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This list may be reproduced, only when credit is given to the author and the book: Copyright, 1999, Sherrie Eldridge, Random House Publishers – TWENTY THINGS ADOPTED KIDS WISH THEIR ADOPTIVE PARENTS KNEW.
