Toddler Adoption and Discipline

With a toddler adoption or an older child adoption chances are you are going to experience some unusual behaviors from them. You must first realize that they are young human beings who have possibly been subjected to extreme trauma in their young lives.

Not only have these children lost their parents, but they are also losing their sociocultural background. All child development occurs within the sociocultural background into which we are born.

So not only is an adopted child having to deal with a situation where you are taking the place of their parents, but they are in a whole new sociocultural system. Perhaps now you can understand where their frustration and consequently their aggression stems from.

Do not take negative sanctions against them or in other words, use negative reinforcements. It will only encourage their negativity towards their situation and will make matters worse.

An adopted child may be extremely upset with what is happening to their life and you must identify with that. Communication is the only tool which is going to solve this problem!

It is up to you to act as their coach and mentor. For example, if they decide to take things out on an animal and give it a kick, then you will need to explain how the animal feels and tell them calmly how you expect them to behave.

Whatever you do, do not display any anger, or they will never trust you. Most importantly, identify with their insecurity and their fear. Continually tell them and reassure them how much you love and value them.

Remember, this is not going to change them overnight. This process is a long drawn out campaign and you are a fantastic individual for even thinking about toddler adoption or any child adoption for that matter.

But you will need to be patient. Give your child massive positive reinforcement over any small good thing that they may do and celebrate it with them.

I cannot stress this point enough, be sure to make them feel valued and loved and over the long term, they will value and love you.

Take care and I wish you well.

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