Talking with your Child about Adoption

Here are a few resources to support families having conversations with their child about adoption. 

Positive Adoption Conversations: An AdoptiveFamilies Guide can be found here

Tip Sheets from the August 2019 Vermont Summit (Quality Improvement Center for Adoption and Guardianship):

• Talking with your Children about Adoption Part A: The Basics
• Talking with your Children about Adoption Part B: Difficult Information
• 8 Keys to Talking about Adoption
• Helping Children Understand Adoption at Different Ages

Resources from the Child Welfare Information Gateway can be referenced here

Talking about Race and Racism can be accessed here

Talking with Children about Difficult Histories by Holly van Gulden click here

Information from the Adoption Council can be found here

A brief article from the Consortium's Spring 2018 Newsletter can be found here

It is also important to think about how to answer those intrusive questions that you may encounter - and how to model answering for your children so that they're prepared to respond.  The National Council For Adoption has a good introductory article to get you started planning for these questions - click here

You can also check out the Consortium Library - AND -

Watch for the Consortium's Talking with Your Children about Adoption Trainings - check out the events page for the current schedule.