‘Please Move These Kids’: Responding to Foster Caregiver Crisis
Every social worker dreads the call from a caregiver in what appeared to be a stable placement indicating that they are in crisis. At this point foster parents are often indicating that they don’t know how to manage the child’s behaviour or are insistent the child be moved immediately. Managing this call with confidence and […]
‘When Kids Don’t Have the Words’: Responding to Preverbal Trauma in Older Children
Children who experienced preverbal trauma and loss (ages of 0-3) carry these memories with them long after they find safety and security in permanent homes. Preverbal trauma is stored in the body and is easily triggered through senses like vision, touch, taste, smell as well as the auditory and motor systems. This workshop will provide […]
Assessing the Child for Best Outcomes in Matching and Transitioning
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. […]
Big Feelings, Little Bodies: Understanding Grief and Loss for Infants and Toddlers
Grief and loss for infants and toddlers is a lot like big feelings in little bodies that have limited options for expression. Children who experience loss during preverbal stages of development grieve deeply even though they are unable to talk about their experiences. We see this grief in the way they behave, the way they […]
Birth Family Contact in the Adoption Process
Assessing and planning for long term birth family relationships is an important aspect of creating successful permanency plans for children. This workshop will discuss the role that birth family relationships can play in the adoption process and how to factor in birth family contact throughout the matching, transition and post placement stages of adoption. Participants […]
Crisis of Adoption Breakdown: Critical Needs of the Child in a Transition-Out Plan
When all resource and support options have been exhausted, and extenuating circumstances are leading to a placement breakdown, it is important for social workers to have a process they can follow that will allow them to support all parties. It is critical that a child’s grief is adequately acknowledged and that experiences of closure are […]
Discipline Strategies for Children with Trauma Histories: Why is it so different?
This workshop explores the implications of a child’s early history, and how it offers insight into what children need in order to build secure relationships with caregivers. The presenter will discuss some of the common behaviour concerns frequently exhibited by children in care, and the trauma informed/attachment-based responses that have proven effective. Participants will better […]
Emotional Experience of the Foster Parent
It is crucial that foster parents understand and know how to process their own grief around loss when children come and go from their care. Their experiences often mirror the experience of the child who feels a loss of control and a loss of familiar relationships. This workshop looks specifically at the difficult emotional experiences […]
Exceptional Parenting: Caring For Traumatized Children
If you are a parent through adoption, fostering, or raising a relative – you know that a high level of care giving is required to meet the needs of your child. All children who have been abused, neglected, witnessed violence or had multiple caregivers have experienced some degree of trauma. These experiences can interfere with […]
Managing Crisis Post-Placement: Recognizing Warning Signs and Responding Effectively
Crisis in a family, post-placement, can at times build slowly, with awareness of the increasing tension, while other times, can appear with what seems to be no warning signs at all. It is important to assess new formed families for indicators that the placement is in trouble and to continue reinforcing conversations about permanency. Understanding […]
Overview of Parent-Child Therapies and Adoption Specific Services for Adoptive Families
A Child’s Song provides a variety of services that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of all members of adoptive and foster families. We offer education, consultation and therapeutic services for adoptive families and professionals caring for adoptees or adoptive parents. As a therapeutic team, we believe that parents are the key to the […]
Preparing Foster Families for Transitions
In planning for post-adoption visits, consideration needs to be given to the child’s social and emotional development and previous attachment experiences. This workshop explores what we know, through both research and clinical experience, about the way children transition between caregivers, how they process grief and loss and what eases the pain of these changes. Practical […]
Preparing Older Children for Adoption (4-11)
This workshop will explore the uneven development of children who have experienced early loss and trauma and how this impacts preparation for adoption. Talking to children about adoption requires a level of attunement to their complex experiences. Participants will learn how to offer clear, direct and compassionate explanations the help children to form connections between […]
Responding to Eating Difficulties in Children with Early Trauma and Relational Losses
This workshop will address common concerns for children whose early experiences included food deprivation or food scarcity. Participants will understand how to look at the relationship between current feeding challenges and how they relate to safety, attachment and relational security. Attachment based strategies for responding to difficult eating and feeding behaviors will be presented and […]
Responding to Sleep Difficulties in Children with Early Trauma and Relational Losses
This workshop will demonstrate relationships between early trauma, implicit memories, and sleep issues. Environmental adaptation in early brain development prepares children for the perceived risks involved with sleep resulting in behavioural patterns that are hard to shift. Participants will learn how to intervene with trauma informed, attachment based interventions when children persist in maladaptive sleep […]
Settling the Alarm System through Play and Sensory Strategies
Children with early histories of trauma and attachment disruptions are chronically dysregulated and this makes them difficult to parent. Foster parents need strategies that will calm the nervous system of the child and make it possible to build trust and connection. This workshop looks at the use of play and sensory interventions that help to […]
Special Considerations in Matching: Race, Culture, Religion, and Family Composition
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 […]
Transitioning Babies Toddlers in Foster Care and Adoption (0-3)
Given what we know about how babies and toddlers experience big losses, particularly the loss of a primary caregiver, our transition practices need to reflect this understanding. Practical information about best practices for this age group will be discussed. The Guiding Principles of Transitioning will be applied specifically to planning transitions for babies and toddlers […]
Transitioning Children from Foster Care to Adoption: Best Practices
Transitioning a child from foster care to adoption is a complex process with significant implications for the future development of the new parent-child relationships. Planning transitions based on current “best practice” can be slow, confusing and at times discouraging for those involved. Participants will receive new information that will assist them in understanding the needs […]
Transitioning Children from Foster Care to Adoption: Role of a Foster Parent
Transitioning a child from foster care to adoption is a complex process with significant implications on the future development of the parent-child relationship. Supporting transitions for children in your care can be a confusing, and at times, discouraging process for caregivers. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the needs of children transitioning from […]
Trauma Informed Matching In Adoption: Strategies for Assessment
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. […]
Understanding and Advocating for the School Needs of Children With Trauma and Relational Losses
Children who have experienced early trauma and caregiver losses often encounter difficulties in their school environment. Multiple factors contribute to children feeling emotionally unsafe, and unable to tolerate the feelings of shame, and lack of competence, that they encounter in this setting. This workshop will assist professionals in assessing whether a child is able to […]
Understanding and Managing Difficult Behaviors: Strategies for Temporary Caregivers
Managing difficult behaviors is one of the greatest challenges for foster parents. Many children in care have received harsh and abusive treatment from someone that was meant to keep them safe, and subsequently, have difficulty trusting caregivers. The behaviors they exhibit developed in response to their previous environments and are therefore quite adaptive in nature. […]
Understanding the Complexity of Birth Family Relationships
Many children in foster care have the opportunity to remain connected to members of their biological family, and we know that these relationships are so very important to the child’s sense of identity and wellbeing. Navigating the specifics of visitation with birth family can be very stressful for both professionals and caregivers. This workshop explores […]
Understanding the Complexity of Birth Family Relationships
Many children in foster care have the opportunity to remain connected to members of their biological family, and we know that these relationships are so very important to the child’s sense of identity and wellbeing. Navigating the specifics of visitation with birth family can be very stressful for caregivers and decision makers. The needs of […]
Understanding Trauma and the Brain with the Experiential Brain Architecture Game
This workshop is an experiential activity that builds understanding of the powerful role of experiences on early brain development—what promotes it, what derails it, with what consequences for society. The goal is to build a brain that is as tall as possible, which represents functionality, and as sturdy as possible, which represents the ability to […]
When Social Workers Experience Trauma: Impact of Complex Decision Making
The impact of working with the complexity of human relationships can be heavy, intense and traumatic, leaving social workers feeling at a loss for control or numb to their experience. Left unprocessed, the social worker’s trauma is often mistaken for burnout which leaves the underlying root unresolved. This workshop will provide social workers with a […]
