Developmental Stages in Understanding Adoption and Race

Please find some of our best articles, essays and reviews on this topic.

For more topics and articles, check out our full listing on our Resource Library.

Development theory is a way of looking at human behavior, psychology, or change that suggests that children (and adults) will grow and change, in predictable ways, in the specific context and circumstance of their life experience. It is a road map, not a measuring stick. Understanding the normative experiences of adoption and race in the context of children’s age-appropriate development is an important way that parents can strengthen and hone the strategies they use to nurture their children’s self-esteem and answer their questions about the world and themselves.

If you prefer, you can use our Library Search Tool to search by title or author. All the material in this section is copyrighted by Pact; for permission to reproduce or re-post it, please contact us at education@pactadopt.org.

• 8 Ways to Handle Adoption Questions
  by Beth Hall & Gail Steinberg (2011 | 65 KB | )
  
• A Different Kind of Normal
  by Joan McNamara (1998 | 339 KB | )
  
• Adoption and Generations
  by Linda Yellin (1998 | 81 KB | )
  
• Adoption and the Stages of Development - What Parents Can Expect at Different Ages
  by Beth Hall (1992 | 114 KB | )
  
• An Entrustment Journey
  by Fran Cooper Materra (1995 | 312 KB | )
  
• Ask Pact: Homeschooling
  by Pact (2010 | 345 KB | )
  
• Ask Pact: How to Deal with Teasing About Adoption
  by Susan Ito (2009 | 340 KB | )
  
• Ask Pact: Is Our 12-Year-Old Too Young To Find Her Birth Mother?
  by Pact (2007 | 116 KB | )
  
• Ask Pact: Responding to Racist Comments from Kids
  by Pact Campers Listserv (2008 | 356 KB | )
  
• Attachment and the School Age Child
  by David Brodzinsky (2010 | 89 KB | )
  
• Attachment in Early Childhood
  by Marjorie Grace (1998 | 333 KB | )
  
• Birth Parent Loss and Grief
  by Patricia E. Roles (1997 | 115 KB | )
  
• Bonding and Attachment: How Does Adoption Affect a Newborn?
  by Gail Steinberg & Beth Hall (1998 | 406 KB | )
  
• Book Review: Adoption and the Schools
  by FAIR (2004 | 89 KB | )
  
• Book Review: Beneath the Mask Understanding Adopted Teens
  by Debbie Riley (2007 | 84 KB | )
  
• Book Review: Brothers and Sisters in Adoption
  by Arleta James (2009 | 473 KB | )
  
• Book Review: Can We Talk about Race?
  by Beverly Daniel Tatum (2008 | 90 KB | )
  
• Book Review: I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla
  by Marguerite Wright (2006 | 85 KB | )
  
• Book Review: Parenting Adopted Adolescents: Understanding and Appreciating Their Journeys
  by Gregory Keck (2009 | 408 KB | )
  
• Book Review: The Colours in Me: Writing & Poetry by Adopted Children & Youth
  Edited by Perlita Harris (2009 | 412 KB | )
  
• Book Review: The Identity Trap: Saving Our Teens from Themselves
  by Joseph Nowinski (2008 | 403 KB | )
  
• Building An Adoptive Identity
  by Harold Grotevant (2009 | 129 KB | )
  
• Can White People Nurture Black Kids Effectively?
  by RoAnne Elliot (1998 | 111 KB | )
  
• Child Development and Adoption
  by Holly Veldhuis (1992 | 104 KB | )
  
• Children In Transition
  by Devon Rubin (2009 | 308 KB | )
  
• Deafness and Difference
  by Marilyn May (1996 | 110 KB | )
  
• Dealing with Racism
  by Beth Hall (2012 | 0 KB | )
  
• Dealing with Racism: Perspective of a White Transracial Adoptive Parent
  by Beth Hall (2012 | 163 KB | )
  
• Developing Cultural Competence
  by Linda Whitfield (1995 | 105 KB | )
  
• Director’s Corner: Adolescence Who Am I? Where Am I Going?
  by Beth Hall & Gail Steinberg (2003 | 98 KB | )
  
• Director’s Corner: Anger & Mood Swings in Tweens & Teens
  by Beth Hall (2008 | 114 KB | )
  
• Director’s Corner: Remember When I Came Out of Daddy’s Tummy?
  by Beth Hall & Gail Steinberg (2009 | 616 KB | )
  
• Director’s Corner: Respecting Children’s Pain
  by Beth Hall (2011 | 123 KB | )
  
• Director’s Corner: Why Did This Happen To Us?
  by Beth Hall (2012 | 123 KB | )
  
• Emotion Coaching: Teaching Your Child to Self Regulate
  by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka (2009 | 332 KB | )
  
• Encouraging Reluctant Teens & Tweens to Attend Teen Club
  by Pact (2011 | 342 KB | )
  
• Executive Parenting Strategies that Work
  by Jim Manhoney (1995 | 341 KB | )
  
• Four Lifelong Issues in Adoption
  by Beth Hall and Gail Steinberg (2007 | 116 KB | )
  
• Gentle Transitions: A Newborn Baby’s Point of View about Adoption
  by Michael Trout (1997 | 101 KB | )
  
• How Adoption Has Shaped My Life
  by Joyce Maguire Pavao (1994 | 335 KB | )
  
• How Did You Get So Close?
  by Holly van Gulden (1998 | 331 KB | )
  
• In Utero Drug Exposure - The Impact on Language Development
  by Kimm E. Bolding (1995 | 120 KB | )
  
• Interpreting Regression in Children
  Adapted from Holly van Gulden (2009 | 329 KB | )
  
• Laughter, Attachment and Adopting Older Kids
  by Pat O’Brien (1996 | 340 KB | )
  
• Pact Camp Offers Parenting Insights FCC Northern California, Summer 2006
  by Annie Stuart (2006 | 66 KB | )
  
• Positive Discipline
  by Lisa Kelly (2010 | 329 KB | )
  
• Prenatal Substance Exposure: What Parents Need to Know
  by Pact (2010 | 59 KB | )
  
• Prenatal Trauma and the Adoptee Experience
  by Sally Clark (1996 | 112 KB | )
  
• Quinceañera!
  by Veronica Maciel (2003 | 73 KB | )
  
• Racial Identity Formation
  by Pact (2007 | 64 KB | )
  
• Responding to the Coded Messages of Children’s Behavior
  by Kenneth W. Watson (1996 | 330 KB | )
  
• Seeing A Child Through The Lens Of Temperament
  by Rona Renner (2010 | 144 KB | )
  
• Stopping Bias In Its Tracks
  by Laurie Olsen & Nina Mullen (1995 | 126 KB | )
  
• Strategies for Helping Children Respond to Outsider Questions
  by Pact (2010 | 60 KB | )
  
• Talking to Children about Sex and Adoption: An Interview with Anne Bernstein
  Interviewed by Beth Hall (1995 | 337 KB | )
  
• Talking to Young Children about Race and Racism
  by Joemy Ito-Gates & Wei Ming Dariotis (2006 | 107 KB | )
  
• Talking to Your Adopted Adolescent about Adoption
  by Randolph W. Severson (1995 | 334 KB | )
  
• Talking with Children about Difficult History
  by Holly van Gulden (1995 | 339 KB | )
  
• Teen Corner: Adopted Teens Speak Out
  by Pact Teen Club (2009 | 373 KB | )
  
• The Benefits of Co-Sleeping
  by Molly Brannigan (2009 | 350 KB | )
  
• The Making of a Scholar
  by Vera Landry (2008 | 334 KB | )
  
• The Primal Wound?
  by Randolph W. Severson (1994 | 336 KB | )
  
• TV and ADD
  by Foster W. Cline (1996 | 124 KB | )
  
• What I Learned from My Daughter’s Self-Portrait
  by Elise Crum (2010 | 0 KB | )
  
• When Do You Follow When Do You Lead - Talking to Children About Adoption
  by Gail Steinberg and Beth Hall (2002 | 127 KB | )
  
• White Parents Identity
  by Deborah Haynor & Lori Miller (2006 | 121 KB | )
  
• Why Children Don’t Talk (Much) Adoption Adoption
  by Virginia Keeler-Wolf (1996 | 336 KB | )
  

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