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One of the best parts about being a foster carer is the overwhelming feeling of wonder that comes with having a positive impact on the lives of children in care, which involves showing them love, providing stability, and allowing room for growth. However, you will need to put boundaries in place, which will involve communicating with caseworkers, learning about new foster children, and planning ahead of time. Continue reading below to find out more.
Praising Positive Behaviours
When foster child arrives at a new home, they often feel overwhelmed by the changes in their lives, which can present certain challenges to overcome. To reduce any potential friction, you will need to put together a set of rules to be followed, and the consequences for breaking them. However, it’s essential to avoid focusing on the negatives. That means praising positive behaviours regardless of how significant the action is.
Understanding When to Leave It
In some cases, you may need to use your nurturing talents to steer foster children away from negative actions that can make it difficult to form a positive relationship. Therefore, you need to analyse their behaviour and choose the most significant things to target first, like if their behaviours put them in harm’s way. When trivial behavioural issues come up, you may need to simply let them go and come back later, which will avoid being too negative.
However mighty your skills are as a foster carer, you may need additional support with behavioural management, which is where your fostering agency comes into play. If you’re reading this article because you’re considering fostering in Coventry, you should rest assured that you’ll always have support available to you.
Creating Behaviour Plans
Before welcoming a new foster child into your home. You must find out everything there is to know, which includes understanding potential triggers. Taking this information into account, you need to create a behavioural plan. Which involves deciding on appropriate rules and consequences – like a ban from the TV for an evening. Even though you will know this already, it’s important to keep in mind that physical forms of punishment are never okay. And you will need to sign an agreement stating this will never happen.
Give the Correct Type of Attention
Children need positive attention in their lives because it helps with their development. However, foster children in your care may not have received this in the past, which can leave them acting out to fight for attention – whether it be positive or negative. If you come across this type of behaviour, you mustn’t engage, as this encourages cries for attention. Instead, you need to show them that attention will be given anyway, which is why it’s essential to create plenty of 1:1 time.
Being a foster carer is highly rewarding, but you need to be equipped to handle all types of behaviours, which means setting boundaries. To do this, you will need to understand each foster child’s background and make sure your home’s rules are straightforward.