c6106

Child's name: Joshua
Number: C6106
Birthdate: 5/97
State: Washington
Listed: 12/05, Updated 3/09

Scroll down to view Joshua's Wednesday's Child video

If you have completed an adoption homestudy and would like to have your information forwarded to this child's worker, contact us.

Legally free, JOSHUA (5/97) is a boy with potential! A happy, affectionate, loving 11-year old, he has excellent writing and verbal skills. He’s already written some great short stories and hopes to be a published author one day. Josh always looks forward to Friday nights when he and his foster family get together to share a pizza and watch a movie. Other favorite pastimes are listening to music, playing video games, and performing magic tricks. Josh’s favorite cartoon character is Garfield, and just like Garfield, Josh’s favorite food is lasagna. With some encouragement, Josh has begun participating in team sports. He has done very well, and it appears to be an avenue to help Josh develop peer relationships. Josh’s greatest social strength is in working with younger children. While Josh has been exposed to Christian beliefs, he would like to have the choice of whether or not to attend weekly church services. He is very open to a variety of cultures and ethnicities which he has been exposed to through his school and community, and some of his past foster families.

Josh has made huge gains, especially over the past couple of years with the help of his foster family and therapeutic services and supports. Those who know him best feel that he could truly blossom once he has a permanent family and a therapeutic team that can continue to help him increase self-esteem and develop satisfying relationships with adults and peers.

In school, Josh is at grade level or above academically in his mainstream classroom. He is reading at a seventh grade level and enjoys the Harry Potter books. Due to a learning issue his current school has found that having him type school work instead of writing it greatly improves his academic performance. Behavioral supports and regular parental contact with his school help to keep Josh on track.

Josh continues to work on developing tools and strategies to help him deal manage his feelings of stress and frustration in healthy ways. Josh weathered much of his early childhood by assuming attitudes and behaviors of “self-survival.” He is focusing on making better personal and social choices, increasing his social skills with kids, and strengthening his boundaries. While he still gets frustrated pretty easily, he’s moving forward. With the right folk(s) in his corner and good therapeutic supports, he will be successful.

While it will be important for his adoptive parents to have a good understanding of how early trauma can impact a child’s sense of well being and safety and his social and behavioral development, as well as a good grasp of possible residual effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol, the key to Josh’s success will be his new folks’ style of parenting. Much of Josh’s progress has been due to his skilled foster parents who have been able to depersonalize his anger outbursts and handle them in calm, patient ways. They’ve also provided opportunities for him to make good choices and behavioral changes, and used natural consequences as a teaching tool. They have also seen that he has full information and explanations following a parent-child disagreement or when he has misbehaved. All of which help Josh to fee as if he has some control in his life.

Restricting family recruitment to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah will allow his new folks to meet Josh in person and spend several days getting acquainted with him. He needs a thoughtful transition into his adoptive home. It may also be helpful for Josh to participate in family counseling with his adoptive folks.

Subsidy and Purchase of Service may be available.

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