Understanding the implications of how an adoptive parents’ historical trauma will interact with a child’s early experiences is crucial in successful matching. New research on the impact of trauma on brain development, and subsequent relationship dynamics, can offer insight into the more subtle factors that are difficult to identify and assess in the matching process. A prospective adoptive parents’ unresolved history with mental illness, parent child relationships, experiences of fear and shame, as well as abuse and neglect, can result in blind spots that can impact how they view and understand a child’s behaviours. Identifying these blind spots can inform matching decisions and how to support prospective adoptive parents in finding early resolution. 

This workshop was designed to provide social workers with practical instruction on how to assess children prior to considering a permanency placement as well as throughout the transition process. Participants will learn how to identify key aspects of child development and current functioning to be considered when determining the best fit between child and caregivers. Learning how to identify a child’s baseline of functioning, how to monitor changes to the baseline and then draw conclusions from the observations will be discussed. This workshop will also include a brief look at situations when a higher level of assessment is required and how to access those services.

Matching, in adoption and permanency planning, requires a depth of understanding how race, culture, religion and family composition factors impact not only the child, but the whole adoptive family, post-placement. This workshop will explore some of the tough questions about how race matters, as well as how religious or cultural beliefs should influence matches. We will also explore how different family compositions such as one or two parents, heterosexual or same-sex couples and sibling groups might also impact placement success.