A child's future
starts with you

Adopt

This course is for adoptive parents with children aged 3 to 8 years. The course consists of 16 weekly parenting groups during term time, both weekday and evening courses run. There are places for 10 parents on each course.

Adopt is a programme of parenting training and support developed specifically for adopters of children aged 3 to 8. The programme focuses on strategies to manage behaviour as well as offering support to those caring for children with complex problems.

As well as weekly group sessions, participants receive support via phone calls from a facilitator between sessions. Home visits are conducted prior to the programme and if any sessions are missed.

Coping with Teens

This course is for adoptive parents and special guardians of young people aged 10 to 18 years. The course consists of evening or daytime sessions, 21 hours in total. There are places for 12 parents on each course.

This is a parenting course written for adopted parents, covering specific strategies to tackle the challenging behaviour of adopted teenagers. The course addresses the differences and similarities between adopted teens and teenagers born to birth families. It encourages self-reflection and reflection on the feelings and needs of adopted teens.

Dealing with Anger and Strong Feelings

This course is for adoptive parents and special guardians with children aged 4 to 12 years. The course consists of three sessions. There are places for 12 parents on each course.

This is a specially designed parenting course covering specific strategies to deal with anger and strong feelings in adopted children, children with a special guardianship order and their parents. The course encourages self-reflection and reflection on the feelings and needs of adopted and special guardian children and the reasons for their anger and challenging behaviour.

Teens Graduate Group

Graduates will be invited to attend termly two hour structured, focussed group work sessions revisiting parenting strategies and models taught on the original course plus new material. These will take place three times a year for up to 12 parents.

Emotions Group

This is a group for adopted young people and their parents. It consists of four weekday sessions and each group has space for approximately 8 families. The group is run by members of staff from the Adoption & Permanence Support and ATTACH Teams.

This group provides a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach to managing difficult emotions for pre-teens and teens. There will be a complementary support group for the parents of the children at the same time. 

• Group one: young people aged 11 – 13 years
• Group two: young people aged 13 – 16 years

E-safety Training

This workshop is for adoptive parents and special guardians with children over eight years old. This is a 90 minute workshop.

This workshop is to assist adopters and special guardians in being able to discuss internet safety with their children and help them to be safe online. It will equip them with the information on how to do this.

Explaining Adoption to your Child

There are two courses for adoptive parents, the first is for adoptive parents with children aged five years and older and the second is for adoptive parents with children under five years. Both these courses consist of two workshops, four or six hours in total. There are places for 16 parents on each course.

These workshops are written for adoptive parents wanting to explore issues around the continuing process of explaining adoption to their child as they get older:

• explaining life stories
• answering a child’s questions
• going at their pace.

Fostering Attachments

This is a course for adoptive parents and special guardians caring for a child of any age and consists of 14 weekly sessions.

This course provides support to carers and parents who can feel very isolated caring for children with attachment difficulties. It aims to increase the understanding of your children and their behavioural and emotional needs through an increasing understanding of attachment theory and its application to the parenting of these children. At the end of this course you will feel you have built on your skills, confidence and understanding of attachment.

Let’s Play Workshop

This is a workshop for adoptive parents and special guardians with children aged 4 to 9 years. This workshop consists of two sessions. There are places for 16 parents on each workshop.

This workshop provides the opportunity to explore and try out therapeutic play and theraplay strategies to build attachment and boost the development of emotional literacy, school readiness, language and social skills through play and descriptive commenting.

Booking

To find out more or to book a place contact the Adoption & Permanence Support Team Helpdesk on 01865 897981 or email adoptionsupport@ adoptthamesvalley.gov.uk