Adoption Education

Educating yourselves about the adoption process is the first step in preparing to adopt. You will likely find that your education about adoption will be ongoing, throughout your life as an adoptive family. Adoption education should include:

• Reading Adoption Related Books and Magazines
• Attending Support Groups to Learn from Others
• Attending Adoption Related Conferences and Workshops
• Consulting with Adoption Professionals
• Browsing Through Adoption Related Websites
• Viewing Films about Adoption

Touch base with others who have experienced adoption in their lives:

• Adoptees
• Adoptive Families
• Birth-mothers and Birth-family Members

Adoption Language

Educate yourselves about adoption terms and positive adoption language. For a glossary of adoption terms visit the NAIC website.

Adoption Related Books

Open Adoption

• Adoption Nation (Pertman)
• Dear Birthmother (Silber and Dorner)
• The Spirit of Open Adoption (Gritter)
• The Open Adoption Experience (Roszia and Melina)
• The Family of Adoption (Pavao)
• Out of The Shadows: Birthfathers' Stories (Mason)
• The Cruelest Con: The Guide for a Safe Adoption Journey (Kiser-Mostrom)
• Adopting on Your Own: Guide for Single Parents (Varon)

Raising Adopted Children

• Talking to Your Child About Adoption (Dorner)
• Talking With Young Children About Adoption (Fisher and Watkins)
• Toddler Adoption: The Weavers Craft (Hopkins-Best)
• Why Didn't She Keep Me? (Burlingham-Brown)
• Inside Transracial Adoption (Steinberg and Hall)
• Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew (Eldridge)

Grief and Loss

• The Grief Recovery Handbook (James and Cherry)
• Life is Goodbye, Life is Hello (Bozarth)
• The Post-Adoption Blues (Foli and Thompson)

Bonding and Attachment

• Becoming a Family: Promoting Healthy Attachments with Your Adopted Child (Eshleman)
• The Open Adoption Experience (Roszia and Melina)
• Attachment in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents (Gray)

Adopted Children's Books

• The Day We Met You (Koehler: ages 0-5)
• A Koala for Katie (London: ages 4-8)
• Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (Curtis: ages 4-8)
• Mommy, Did I Grow in your Tummy? (Gordon: ages 4-12)
• Adoption is for Always (Girard and Friedman)

Search and Reunions

• Adoption Reunions (McColm)
• The Other Mother (Schaefer)
• Torn from the Heart (Jurgers)

Teenage Pregnancy / Birthmothers

• Pregnant-Adoption is an Option (Lindsay)
• My Child is a Mother (Stephenson)
• The Third Choice (Foge and Mosconi)

Online Adoption Magazines and Articles

• Adoptive Families Magazine: the online adoption and parenting guide, has provided trusted adoption information and inspiration to families for over 30 years.

General Parent Education and Child Development

The First Five Years of Development

Current research in brain development clearly indicates that the emotional, physical and intellectual environment that a child is exposed to in the early years of life has a profound impact on how the brain is organized. The experiences a child has with respect to parents and caregivers significantly influence how a child will function in school and later in life. The California Children and Families Act of 1998 is designed to provide, on a community-by-community basis, all children prenatal to five years of age with a comprehensive, integrated system of early childhood development services. Through the integration of health care, quality child care, parent education and effective intervention programs for families, children and their parents and caregivers will be provided with the tools necessary to foster secure, healthy and loving attachments. These attachments will lay the emotional, physical and intellectual foundation for every child to enter school ready to learn and develop the potential to become productive, well-adjusted members of society.

The First 5 California website provides thorough information and printable tip sheets and publications for families.

General Parenting and Child Development Books

• The Baby and Child Question and Answer Book (Cooper)
• Fathering Your Toddler: A Dad's Guide (Brott)
• Children Are From Heaven: Positive Parenting Skills (Gray)
• Positive Parenting With a Plan (Johnson: ages K-12)
• Parenting With Love and Logic (Cline and Fay)