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.
