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Legally free, DEVIN (1/98) has an enormous ability to connect emotionally with others. Affectionate and energetic, he is responding very well to the structure, consistency, therapeutic supports, supervision and redirection, and child care in his foster group home. He is making social gains and developing friendships with kids his own age. He is gaining motor skills by getting better at rollerblading and bike riding. He is working on pro-social behavior and building his self-esteem, as well as developing appropriate ways to express his feelings of frustration and anger. Devin is also practicing pro-social interactions with others in the community when he goes on outings. Devin came into foster care in April 2005. Devin has an older sister who has been adopted and it would be beneficial for him to maintain contact with her.

Devin’s special needs include global developmental delays, attachment, social, and intellectual delays, touch processing delays, auditory processing delays, and multi-sensory processing delays. In his intervention program, Devin is responding to the strategies designed for children who may have been exposed prenatally to alcohol and drugs. Those strategies include medication therapy, goal-oriented behavioral management, and counseling. Devin benefits from having good support and supervision on the home front to help him develop good personal safety skills and strengthen his boundaries. Devin receives SSI.

Devin, who is now in the sixth grade, has done very well in school and is transitioning to more time in a mainstream classroom this year. To provide as much consistency for Devin as possible, his school works closely with his group home staff and case manager to make sure he has the social and learning supports he needs.

Devin will do best in an adoptive family that has a very good grasp of the neurological, behavioral, and learning issues associated with exposure to alcohol and drugs prenatally. His adoptive parent(s) need to already know or be willing to learn positive parenting strategies, but most of all they need to be loving and caring and willing to help Devin meet the daily challenges of his special needs and take pride in his Mexican/Caucasian heritage. Lots of patience and a big sense of humor will be essential. It will be important, too, for his new parent(s) to know how to access community resources and work cooperatively with the different professionals that will be providing services to Devin now and in the years to come. It would be helpful for Devin’s adoptive family to hold the belief that it takes a village to raise a child. Devin’s village is full of knowledgeable professionals, now he just needs a nurturing, committed family.


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