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Family Forum: Making Sense of “Alphabet Soup”
November 9, 2022 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST
Recommended Family Forums are held on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month, and are intended to be a time of education, constructive dialogue, and support. Occasionally, topics of particular interest to families may also be discussed during a lunch hour forum.
All Recommended families will receive an email inviting them to register for upcoming Forums. Upon completing registration, the family will receive an email with the virtual GoTo Meeting link needed to access the meeting. If you are not Recommended with Indiana Adoption Program, but have recently adopted or are in the process of finalizing an adoption and would like to participate, please email your request to your local adoption consultant.
Making Sense of the “Alphabet Soup” of a Child’s Diagnoses
PTSD. RAD. FASD. ADHD. Either this is the worst Scrabble hand ever drawn, or you’ve just encountered the “alphabet soup bowl” of a child summary.
Reading a child summary, it’s easy to be confused (and scared!) by the diagnoses that are often included in the sections on behaviors or emotional functioning. We’ll discuss some of these often-referenced acronyms, what they actually mean, and what they don’t mean. Moreover, we’ll talk about what you can expect and how to prepare your family to welcome a youth with a trauma-related diagnosis.
And there’s that T-word again: Trauma. It’s a key ingredient in this alphabet soup, since often, trauma behaviors can look a lot like behaviors associated with diagnoses like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), ODD (oppositional defiant disorder), or RAD (reactive attachment disorder). The diagnosis is important – but it’s equally critical that families are aware of their reactions and how some proactive planning can help pre-empt some of the common behaviors exhibited by children and teens who have been in foster care.
All Recommended families will receive an email inviting them to register for upcoming Forums. If you are Recommended and have not received an email invitation, please contact us at iap@fireflyIN.org. If you are not Recommended with Indiana Adoption Program, but have recently adopted or are in the process of finalizing an adoption and would like to participate, please email your request to your local adoption consultant.