Communication

Active Listening

Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say

We have experienced quite a bit of ambivalence among the foster children. Because of the many things that have happened to them, they often don't know what is best for them.

The best approach appears to be to give them healthy choices and make them responsible for their decisions.

Reminding them that they made the choice reinforces their empowerment.

Keep Lines of Communication Open

Children often want to talk. It's important to listen. It's also important to know when you're being manipulated and when you need to tell them you've heard enough.

Idle chatter - important information - requests that may require negotiating - opinions - responses… all go under the heading of Communication. Positive exchanges are always important, requests need to be weighed, and poor judgment needs to be pointed out.

Perceptions

What we can perceive we can achieve. Unfortunately, many of these children have misconceptions on their abilities, have perceptions of poor self-esteem or of course, look through life based on their experiences.

Trying to change misconceptions and how they per-ceive various situations is through experiences that are healthy, uplifting and hopefully motivating.

As they get older, it is much more difficult to make these changes without professional guidance or mentoring.

We see things in different ways. As an adult you see a much bigger picture of a larger situation than the child with his limited experience and often bad memories.