If you’re thinking about adoption and want to learn more about adopting a child with additional needs, we’re here to help. In this article, find out the difference between complex and additional needs, why adopted children have additional needs and how you can support them.
Additional needs is a broad term used to describe a person who needs extra support in particular areas of their life. These needs can be physical, behavioural, emotional, educational, social, or developmental. Some children may have one additional need, whereas others may have several.
When you adopt a child, professionals may have already identified the areas of their life in which they need a little extra support. However, some additional needs may not become apparent until the child is much older, especially if you adopt a baby or toddler.
Additional needs vs complex needs
Additional needs and complex needs can often be confused with each other. Although they are linked, the difference between the two depends on factors such as:
- Severity: How the child’s additional needs impact their daily life. For example, a child with complex needs may struggle to form relationships, learn and complete routine tasks. They may have mobility issues that make it difficult for them to get around or require specialist medical care.
- Number: If a child has multiple additional needs, it can make their overall needs more complex.
- Overlapping: Whether their additional needs interact and affect each other. For example, if a child has autism and experiences trauma, the combination can exacerbate their challenges. They could really struggle with settling into their adopted home if they find change difficult and find it even harder to build relationships. This would make their overall needs more complex.
- Intervention: A child with complex needs may require a higher level of support to manage day-to-day life.
For example, if a child would benefit from one-to-one support to read, write, or improve their speech, they would be considered to have an additional need. Whereas if a child experiences significant and ongoing challenges in multiple areas of life, such as in their physical, behavioural, and emotional development, they are likely to have complex needs.
Additional and complex needs often overlap and may be linked with a diagnosis for a specific condition, such as ADHD or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, every child will experience their condition differently, and a diagnosis alone will not necessarily mean their needs are complex.
Different types of additional needs:
There are many conditions that fall under the umbrella term ‘additional needs’. Below, we’ve grouped them into the areas of a child’s life they may affect:
- Physical: They impact a child’s physical health, mobility and the way their body functions. The child may have a condition such as cerebral palsy, asthma, diabetes, epilepsy or vision and hearing loss.
- Behavioural: They influence the way a child manages their behaviour and how they respond to situations. They can be linked to conditions like ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).
- Emotional: They have challenges with processing and regulating emotions and may relate to conditions such as anxiety, ASD and FASD.
- Educational and cognitive: They find learning, thinking, processing or understating information difficult. This may be a result of dyslexia, dyscalculia or learning disabilities.
- Social: They find it challenging to build and maintain relationships. Conditions such as social anxiety and attachment disorders may be the root cause.
- Developmental: They have developmental delays, missing milestones in areas such as speech, language, gross and fine motor skills, and learning.
Trauma can lead to additional needs in all these areas, which is why a child who is awaiting adoption is more likely to have an additional need. Trauma may also exacerbate underlying conditions, making them more complex.
Every child will process trauma differently, and it may take some time for you to identify and fully understand their needs. They’ll need your patience, support, and advocacy to help them manage.
Why adopted children have additional needs
Any child can have an additional need, but adopted children are more likely to need extra support in various areas of their lives due to their past experiences. 80% of adopted children have lived in unsafe homes where they endured abuse and neglect; they are also more likely to have a neurological condition such as Autism and FASD.
Below is how trauma can lead to physical, behavioural, emotional, developmental, social and educational additional needs:
Physical needs
In extreme cases of abuse, a child may be left with a physical disability, and neglect may leave a child severely underweight. Other children may have been born with a physical disability and were moved into care because their parents couldn’t provide the appropriate support.
Children living with trauma can also experience physical symptoms, such as headaches, nausea and a weakened immune system. In some cases, children may become either numb to physical pain or hypersensitive to sensory input.
Children with additional physical needs may require support from an occupational therapist and other medical professionals to help them manage their daily lives. If their physical symptoms are a psychological response to trauma, they may benefit from therapy.
Behavioural needs
Many children living with trauma have additional behavioural needs. When children live in abusive or neglectful homes, they often have to adapt their behaviour to survive in their environment.
Trauma also physically alters the brain, which can affect emotional regulation, memory and learning. The brain may also adapt through hypervigilance, which helps a child quickly scan their surroundings for potential threats.
This means children living with trauma may quickly become overstimulated by busy and noisy environments like school, leading to meltdowns or impulsive responses.
These survival behaviours won’t suddenly disappear when a child is adopted and can be difficult for others to understand. So, they will need support to manage their additional behavioural needs at home and school.
Emotional needs
Emotional regulation is a learned skill. As children, our parents coach us through our emotions – they may offer us a hug if we feel sad or teach us how to verbalise how we feel when we have a meltdown. We also rely on our parents to model emotional regulation, observing how they manage their emotions, so we know how to deal with ours.
When children grow up in households where their parent’s behaviour and emotions are erratic, it can be confusing for a child and means they may miss this important part of development. For example, their caregiver may answer their cries one day but not the next or process their anger by using violence. This means a child misses an opportunity to learn how to manage their emotions in a healthy way.
Emotional needs are strongly linked to behavioural needs, as a child’s behaviour is a way for them to communicate their thoughts and emotions.
Developmental needs
When children grow up, they go through various developmental milestones, such as sitting, crawling, standing, walking, talking, reading and so on. These milestones help track the growth and development of a child, ensuring they’re on target.
In the early years of a child’s life, they need encouragement from their parents to hit developmental milestones. For example, a child learns how to roll over by being given ‘tummy time’. They also rely on their parents to teach them how to use the potty and eat solid foods.
Children living with trauma may have never been given the chance to work towards their milestones. They may also find it harder to reach them due to the changes in their brain that make it difficult for them to learn and retain information.
Social needs
Childhood trauma can have negative consequences on children’s relationships. Our parents are our first relational experience, providing a blueprint for our future connections.
If a child’s first caregivers were abusive and neglectful, they may struggle to trust new people and build healthy relationships with others. When a child is adopted from care, they may have also moved homes multiple times, so they may try and protect themselves from future hurt by either avoiding new relationships or sabotaging them.
Educational needs
If an adopted child has moved homes multiple times and experiences other additional needs due to their trauma, they may be behind their peers at school.
Hypervigilance behaviour, emotional dysregulation, and changes in their brain development that impact learning and memory can all make the school day more difficult for children living with trauma.
For example, they may find it difficult to remember when their homework is due or react in a way people don’t understand to seemingly small things, such as someone using their pen. They may argue with their teachers or refuse to go to school altogether.
Caring for a child with additional needs
Caring for a child with additional needs can be incredibly rewarding as you help them navigate the world and exceed expectations set by others.
The specific care for each child will differ depending on their needs; for example, a child with a physical disability may need an occupational therapist to assist with day-to-day living, whereas a child who is deeply affected by trauma may benefit from therapy.
At Adopters for Adoption, we’re here to support you throughout the adoption process and beyond.
When you adopt with us, you’ll benefit from:
- A dedicated social worker: They’ll be by your side from the moment you begin your adoption journey. They can answer any questions you have about the process and potential matches while providing their expert advice and guidance.
- A careful matching process: We’ll help you find a child to adopt through Linkmaker, activity days, and exchange days. If you believe you’d be a good match for a child, we’ll assess whether your experiences and skills meet their needs. We’ll also share as much information as possible about any additional needs and support they already receive.
- Pre-approval training: During your assessment, you’ll receive free training to help you understand the challenges adopted children face. We cover topics such as the background of adopted children, trauma, attachment, loss, separation, and grief.
- Post-adoption support: Once you’ve adopted a child, we’ll continue to provide support. Social workers will visit you regularly, identifying whether you and your child would benefit from any additional support. Once you’ve applied for an adoption order and have parental responsibility for your child, social worker visits will stop but you can request support as and when needed.
- Support groups: We host regular support groups for adoptive families, helping you connect with people from similar family setups to build a wider support network.
- Further training: You’ll have access to our full range of training courses on topics such as identity, life story work, contact, and existing children.
- Free membership: When you adopt with us, you’ll receive a 12-month membership to Adoption UK, and LGBTQIA+ parents can benefit from a lifetime membership to New Family Social. Both offer resources, training, and long-term support for adoptive parents.
- Adoption Grant: All adopted parents have access to the Adoption and Special Guardianship fund. This can help you pay for therapeutic services, such as therapeutic parenting training, creative therapies, and Filial therapy.
Advocate for your child
You are your child’s advocate. If you believe your child has an undiagnosed condition, their GP is your first point of call. If there is a long waiting list, or your child’s needs are being misunderstood, talk to your child’s school or reach out to us, and we’ll help you find the support your child needs.
If you’re concerned that your child’s additional needs are impacting their education, talk to the SENCO team. They should make reasonable adjustments and provide further support for your adopted child.
If you struggle to get the support your child deserves, the virtual head can advocate for your child on your behalf. Virtual heads ensure children living in care or who have previously lived in care have the right support to thrive at school.
If you’d like more information about adopting a child with additional needs, we’d love to hear from you. Call us on 0800 5877 791 or submit an online enquiry form, and we’ll be in touch.
