How Adoption Can Affect A Child 's Development

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For my research paper I chose to write about how adoption can effect a child’s development: physical development, cognitive development and social/emotional development. For the sake of this paper I think it will be helpful to define adoption; adoption is defined as to take and rear (the child of other parents) as one 's own child, specifically by a formal legal act (Dictionary, 2016).Before I begin according to an Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System article in 2015 53,549 children were adopted using a welfare involvement. I am adopted and while I think I had some disadvantages I believe there were definitely advantages to me being adopted. I will also give specific examples on how my adoption can affect a child’s physical, cognitive and social/emotional development.
“American society and as more Americans have experience with adoption, there is also more attention focused on those involved in adoption- the adopted person, the birth parents, and the adoptive parents” (Child welfare Information gateway, 2016). Seeing that more and more Americans are adopting it is important to look at how a child’s emotional development can be impacted by adoption. The first is the development of their identity. Research as shown heat identity is difficult for anyone, however being adopted can have an added impact on one’s identity. The adopted child can began to ask questions like, “why was I placed for adoption? what is my place?, who do I look like?, do I have any siblings that could relate to me?” (Child welfare Information gateway, 2013). The adoptive child who then becomes an adult has gone through five stages according to article by the child welfare. The first is they do not acknowledge any adoption issues, the second ...

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...edical history and I was able to have a relationship with my family and not have the added stress of not knowing where I come from. I did not experience any disadvantages from being adopted however, when I looked at the stages one goes through as they get older I can apply them to my life. I feel I may have skipped some stages , but I did question why my mother could not get off the drugs to be able to take care of me and my siblings, however I know it’s not personal because she did not raise any of my siblings. Adoption is something that one is fortune to be loved and to be picked by a family, however I think it is important to be aware of the physical, cognitive and emotional aspects of adopting someone. Overall, I know that I will encounter and adopted student and to be able to have a teacher who was adopted will only help me build a relationship with that child.

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