Emotional Disorders
If your child has an emotional disorder, which may also be part of a cluster of disorders, you must know what's happening in your child's brain, and you must find medical and psychological help.
While brain development starts shortly after conception, it accelerates after birth and continues rapidly until adulthood. The most important time is during the first twelve to fifteen months of life. Immediately after birth, a baby's brain produces trillions more connections than it can possibly use, then begins to eliminate connections for those that are unused. Understanding this concept will help you know how to deal with your child's special needs.
Emotional disorders that are very common in adopted foster children are fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) or fetal alcohol affect (FAA), attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and reactive attachment disorder (RAD). You must be prepared to deal with these kinds of problems in a very practical way. Wishing them away won't be helpful; neither will the mindset that love conquers all.
Most mental/emotional disorders have a significant biological component. FAS and FAA occur because alcohol ingested by the birth mother affects the fetal brain at all stages of development.
ADHD is a neurobehavioral disorder characterized by inattention, restlessness, and poor impulse control. It is considered to have a genetic link and is the most commonly diagnosed childhood psychiatric disorder. It can also be linked to environment, such as prenatal drug or alcohol exposure, low birth weight, and prenatal smoking.
RAD is a disorder in which a child behaves inappropriately in relationships, especially toward adults in caregiver roles, and is caused by a failure to form healthy attachments to early childhood caregivers.
Some good places to start finding resources for help with particular problems are the National Alliance for Autism Research at
You will find parents writing about their experiences, agencies offering help, and advertisers trying to get money out of you. Advertisers are necessary, because they generate the funds to keep the Web sites and blogs open, but be selective in what information you take seriously. See Appendices A and B for lists of where to go for support and education.
