Because Arturo is so comfortable with his foster
family, social services is really pushing the family to consider adopting
him. Tina is still very fond of the idea
of adopting him, despite his nationality.
She and Joel have talked a lot about the situation and Joel has become
more accepting to the possibility of adopting Arturo. While they have been considering this
decision, Arturo’s biological mother has gotten wind of this news. She is very upset with the situation because
she is still working hard to get Arturo back.
However, despite working numerous hours with her migrant labor job, she
still barely has enough money for herself to live off of. Caring for Arturo at this time is not a
possibility for her. Although Joel
sometimes loses his patience with Arturo, he does not want him to go back into
the care of his biological mother. Tina
has also made him see that Arturo is a good child that comes from a hard
background; Arturo cannot be blamed for his situation. Although still a little reluctant to adopt
him, Joel agrees. He sees how happy Tina
has been since Arturo has been in their lives.
Arturo will begin the Head Start program at the
local public school nearby. Tina and
Joel feel that Arturo’s social skills will improve if he becomes socially
involved with other children his age.
Also when he starts school, he will receive an IEP on his hearing
impairment. He will have a speech
therapist work with him on his speaking skills.
He will also continue to learn sign language to communicate effectively
while he is still developing his speech.
Arturo has been in school for five years and is
now eight years old. He is in the third
grade and is really enjoying school.
Despite his hearing difficulties, he is doing extraordinarily well with
the help of an aid who signs things to him that he doesn’t fully
understand. Arturo’s pediatrician has recently
informed Tina and Joel about a cochlear implant. This will allow Joel to hear again, however,
it is very costly. Both, Tina and Joel,
feel that Arturo could benefit from this implant. However, Arturo seems to be doing just fine
with sign language. His speech has also
remarkably improved. He is also very
accustomed to his hearing aid that he received when he began school at age
four.
1) Provide statistics regarding the number of children in Virginia who are adopted by the first foster family with whom they are placed.
2) What are typical developmental milestones for an 8 year old? What evidence is there that Arturo has not met any of those? To what extent is Arturo a "typically developing" child, and to what extent is his development thus far atypical?
3) Evaluate the relative justice of Arturo's adoption and the severance of parental rights of his biological mother. Should one bad decision on her part result in the permanent dissolution of her family? Why or why not? (You should know that a court would have had to terminate the biological mother's parental rights at some point in order for Arturo to be adopted).
DECISION POINT:
Do they get the cochlear implant?
1. The average of children in foster care go through three families before they are either adopted or age out of the program (‘Resources for parents adopting from foster care”, 2010). Only general information on the children that were adopted out of foster care was available. In 2010, 89% of total children adopted were adopted by their foster families (“Virginia adoption facts’, 2010).
ReplyDelete2. The typical motor developmental skills of an 8 year old are refined finger control and increased stamina (Destefanis & Firchow, 2012). The typical language and thinking development of an 8 year old are converse at almost an adult level, interested in reading, understand reasoning for things, develop preferences, and organized and logical thinking (Destefanis & Firchow, 2012). Socially and emotionally, a typical 8 year old has a strong need for love, can be cheerful, as well as rude, may be sensitive, have changing emotions, impatient, making friends, and is more motivated by peer pressure (Destefanis & Firchow, 2012). As far as we can see from what has been told about Arturo, the only way that he may be having difficulty developing is in communicating back and forth with other people due to his speech problems associated with his hearing loss. Other than that, he seems to be developing normally.
ReplyDelete3. The biological mother, the biological mother's husband (even if she is separated) and the biological father (if he is not the woman's husband), all have parental rights to the child once the child has been born. The specifics of these rights and how they are ended are spelled out in the adoption law of every U.S. state and territory. Since a child can only have one set of parents, the law requires that the parental rights of the biological mother, biological father, and the mother's husband if he is not the biological father, be ended before the child can be adopted by other persons. The ending of parental rights, called termination, surrender, or relinquishment of parental rights, ends the legal parent-child relationship. Once the relationship has been terminated, the child is legally free to be adopted. Sometimes the parental rights can be voluntarily ended immediately after the child's birth but sometimes it can be 3 days, 5 days, 15 days, or in excess of 30 days after the child's birth before the parental rights are finally ended; it all depends on the state adoption law. Due to the seriousness and permanent nature of ending parental rights, every state has strict requirements that must be met prior to making this decision and specific requirements on how the parental rights are to be ended (“Birth mother and birth father termination of parental rights”, 2012). Even though the court terminated the legal relationship between Arturo and his mother, this does not mean that they can’t have a relationship. She is still allowed to communicate with him and see him. It is just better for his special needs for him to have a stable family with funds to pay for special accommodations that he needs.
ReplyDeleteDECISION POINT:
ReplyDeleteWe think that Arturo should get the cochlear implant.
Virginia adoption facts. (2010) Retrieved from http://www.nacac.org/policy/statefactsheets/VA.pdf.
Birth mother and birth father termination of parental rights. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.birthmotherresources.com/birth_mother/birth_mother_termination_legal_rights.htm.
Destefanis, J & Firchow, N. (2012). Developmental milestones: Your 8-year-old child. Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/health/903-developmental-milestones-your-8-year-old-child.gs
Resources for parents adopting from foster care. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/foster/