Special Needs and Adoption-Related Terms: Adoption terms and special needs words may vary from agency to agency.The terms used in this Special Needs Adoption-Related Glossary may be slightly different from one State to another.
A | B | C | D | E-F | G-H-I | J-K-L | M | N-O | P | Q-R | S | T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
- Kinship care: Full-time care of a child by someone related to the child biologically or by a prior family relationship, fictive kin.
L
- Learning disabilities (LD): One or more impairments in reading, mathematics and/or written expression skills which interfere with academic performance in school or in activities of daily living requiring those skills. Standardized tests showing results below expected for age. Schooling and level of intelligence are used as preliminary diagnostic tools to identify areas where children are experiencing problems. Children with learning disabilities may be of average or above average intelligence, but have difficulty learning, sorting, and storing information. Some children find learning in a regular classroom difficult and LD classes may be recommended to help them achieve their potential in school.
- Legal custody: Responsibility for a person according to law, such as a guardian’s authority, by court order. Control and care of the person, property, or both.
- Legal guardian: In the case of a minor child, the guardian is charged with the legal responsibility for the care and management of the child and of the minor child’s estate.
- Legal risk placementPlacement of a child in a prospective adoptive family when a child is not yet legally free for adoption. Before a child can be legally adopted by another family, parental rights of his or her birth parents must be terminated. In a “legal risk” adoptive placement either this termination of parental rights has not yet occurred, or it is being contested. In some cases, termination of parental rights is delayed until a specific adoptive family has been identified.
- Legally free A child whose birth parents’ rights have been legally terminated and the child is “free” to be adopted by another family.
- Life book:A pictorial and written story of the child’s life designed to help the child make sense of his unique background and history. The life book includes birthparents, other relatives, birthplace and date, etc and can be put together by social workers, foster and/or adoptive parents working with the child.
- Long-term foster care: Intentional and planned placement of a child in foster care for extended periods of time. After the option of adoption has been explored and not chosen, and relative placement does not work out, a goal of long-term foster care may be a viable goal. Some States child welfare systems no longer view long-term foster care as a placement alternative.
- Loss: A feeling of emotional deprivation that is experienced at some point. An adopted child may feel a sense of loss at various points in time; the first time the child realizes he is adopted may invoke a strong sense of loss for his birth family.
For more information about parenting special needs children you might want to visit the Families.com Special Needs Blog and the Mental Health Blog. Or visit my personal website.
Photo credit for this blog entry: 
(no use restrictions for this photo)