c7173

Child's name: McKenna
Number: C7173
Birthdate: 5/99
State: Washington
Listed: November 2008, Updated 8/09

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

MCKENNA (5/99), who can be very engaging and fun, seems to have some musical aptitude and enjoys singing and dancing. She also enjoys reading very simple books. In the past, she has enjoyed being able to go to a local Boys and Girls Club for after school activities. While McKenna has a special love for animals (especially cats) and can be good with them, she needs attentive supervision around them.

McKenna will be in fourth grade for the 2009-2010 school year. Having a small classroom setting of eight children with behavioral supports and line-of-sight supervision met her needs very well last year. In addition, she had extra academic supports in the classroom to assist her in reading, writing and math. Helping her develop social skills with peers and maintain good boundaries are primary goals. McKenna also has some delays in other areas – she is still learning how to tell time and how to tie her shoes.

Because McKenna has very challenging behavioral and emotional needs associated with past trauma and difficulty trusting adults, she needs adoptive parent(s) who have a good grasp of how early neglect and abuse can impact a child’s sense of well being and overall development. McKenna also has some cognitive delays that may be due, at least in part, to fetal alcohol effects. Her adoptive folks must have the time and the willingness to provide the high level of supervision she needs to be safe (If not well supervised, she is very apt to run out into the street or wander off) and to provide frequent redirection through the day to help her stay on track. An abundance of patience is a huge advantage in parenting McKenna. Although her behaviors are not escalating, they can be very wearing.

Some things prospective adoptive parents will want to know about McKenna is that she responds well to immediate positive reinforcement and to patient, yet firm redirection. She works best one-on-one or in small groups. She does best as an only child or with one or two older teenage girls.

Because McKenna continues to be indiscriminately friendly, especially around other children and strangers, she needs adoptive parents who can help her develop personal safety skills and strengthen her boundaries. Such support should include talking with her openly and non- judgmentally about the importance of respecting the personal space of others, modeling appropriate expressions of affection and safe touching, and seeing that safety plans are in place at home and at school with clear rules, limits, and consequences, and a high level of supervision. Such safety plans should include on the spot intervention when McKenna starts to get off track.

McKenna has therapeutic supports in place, including medication to help curb impulsiveness, aggressiveness, attention difficulties, and high energy, and to help level out her mood swings. It will be essential that her adoptive folk(s) support her full treatment program, which is currently being reevaluated.

While living temporarily with her grandmother for now, it is expected that McKenna will soon be placed back in a therapeutic foster family where there is a much higher level of structure and supervision, and the clear (and firm!) rules, boundaries, and consequences support her treatment program.

McKenna’s social worker wants to hear from couples and single moms with very strong support systems of family and friends, as well as strong psychological, educational, and behavioral resources in the community.

Subsidy and Purchase of Service may be available.

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