Workshop 1: Addressing the Uniqueness of Foster and Kinship Care

This module is a pre-requisite for attendance at further foster and kinship carer training modules.

Workshop Background

Caring for children through foster and kinship care can be exceptionally rewarding, but it is also a demanding and challenging task which requires great skill and sensitivity. This training programme is intended to provide foster and kinship carers with a framework both for understanding the thinking and behaviour of the children in their care and for helping children to settle and flourish in their family placements.
This training programme is based on Trauma and Attachment Theory and on how the interactions in daily family life are a vehicle through which children can be moved towards security.
The process of changing children’s minds and behaviour through therapeutic caregiving begins in the mind of the caregiver. The ways in which a carer thinks and feels about a child’s behaviour will determine his or her own parenting behaviours. There are many opportunities for incremental change and growth in children in the daily course of family life as carers respond and react to children’s behaviours.

Content of the Workshop

This full day (or two half days) workshop is designed specifically for general and kin carers currently parenting children who have joined their families through the foster care system.
At the completion of the course participants will have:

• An understanding of the behaviour of children and the thinking that underpins it
• An understanding of Trauma and Attachment Theory and how this understanding influences approaches taken with children
• An understanding of how self-understanding influences the approach parents bring to their role

This course will give carers a better understanding of Trauma and Attachment Theory and the implications for the children joining their family as well as enabling them to reflect on their own parenting behaviours and the way in which this impacts on the child’s behaviour. This understanding promotes a stronger foundation of emotional well-being and security which children require to thrive.

Participant’s Comments

‘This information has been extremely timely for me. It all makes sense now and has given me a very different direction to what I felt was a ’dead end’.
‘The whole course was very informative and I learned many insights into our children’s behaviour. Helped to look beyond the square.’
‘To be made aware to think of what you bring to the parenting interaction and then think of the child’s feelings.’
‘It was very interesting and beneficial and able to be put into practice.’
‘Great training and useful content for practical parenting.’
‘How to identify attachment behaviours and to practically put learnings in place.’

Workshop 2: Putting Principles Into Practice (PIPP)

To attend these 2 hour monthly sessions (dependent on departmental budget constraints) a participant must have attended Beyond Behaviour Workshop 1
These continuing groups are advanced workshops offered for participants who have attended the core Beyond Behaviour training workshop and have been developed to offer an educational component as well as smaller group discussions that allow participants the opportunity to relate the principles learnt in the Beyond Behaviour workshops to their own family situation.
The content of these groups is flexible so that they can meet the specific needs of the individual group but some of the topics that can be included in the educational component include:

• Managing behaviour from an attachment framework
• What you as the carer bring to the parenting relationship
• Emotion coaching
• Managing specific behaviours

By attending these workshops, participants will have the opportunity to better understand the children in their care, their own reactions to the children’s behaviour and be able to look at new approaches to better manage children who have suffered trauma and attachment disruption.

Participant’s Comments

‘How well it was run. If you have a problem with a child or children there are answers with this course.’
‘It was a great experience. You can learn the difference between bringing up your own kids to bringing up foster kids.’
‘It is definitely recommended for all carers, as you learn the skills to work with difficult children.’
‘I learnt how to manage/support children in my care more efficiently and effectively. I feel far more empowered now which has created more calmness and a better outcome.’
‘I have been using this in my own family and have also learnt that the behaviours can be managed and that your reaction is important. I also learnt to take time away from the situation and think about what needs to be done.’

Workshop 3: Addressing the Uniqueness of Adoptive Parenting Module 1

This full day workshop is designed specifically for parents who are currently parenting children who have joined their families through adoption.
This workshop includes:

• A framework for understanding the behaviour of children and the thinking that underpins it
• An understanding of Attachment Theory and how it impacts on day-to-day family life
• Emotion coaching
• How self-understanding influences the approach parents bring to their role

At the completion of the workshop you should be able to reflect on your own parenting behaviours and the way in which this impacts on the child’s behaviour. This understanding provides a stronger foundation for the emotional well-being and security which children require to thrive.

Participant’s Comments

‘Thank you – every parent in the country need to do this course! Not just the adoptive community.’
‘It would be great to have regular workshops like this. Please come back. Thank you.’
‘Very informative. Learnt a lot about what to expect and how to manage our child’s behaviour. Thank you.’

Workshop 4: Addressing the Uniqueness of Adoptive Parenting Module 2

This one day workshop is designed specifically for parents who have attended Beyond Behaviour Module 1. Based on the core concepts in attachment theory learnt in the first module parents are encouraged to consider and develop alternative parenting practices that promote emotional health and a secure attachment in children who have experienced trauma and neglect.
The course includes:

• Parenting practices with an attachment focus
• Interventions that modulate extreme moods in children and promote emotional health
• Developing coping and problem solving skills in children
• Building self-confidence in children
• Adjustments needed to the everyday home environment that promote safety in children.

At the completion of the course you will have acquired a knowledge of practical methods that parents can use for bridging the gaps in children created by trauma and neglect and help children respond to their new safer environment, rather than to continue to act out the lessons they learned through trauma and neglect. This understanding promotes a stronger foundation of emotional well-being and security which enables children to settle.

Workshop 5: Grandparent and Significant Other Workshop

This half day workshop is designed for extended family and involved friends who wish to further their understanding of the children who will be joining their family network through adoption.
This course includes:

• An understanding of Attachment Theory and how it impacts on day to day family life
• A framework for understanding behaviour of children who join families through adoption

At the completion of the workshop participants will have an enhanced understanding of what children who have been adopted bring to family life and will begin to develop knowledge and skills to support the adoptive parents and generate a loving bond with their new family member.