Survival Skills with Your Foster Children – Stealing

I believe stealing is one of the hardest habits to break. I have made improvements with foster children over time with stealing, but it is still there. While I do understand that for the most part their stealing is a learned behavior or that they had to steal food for survival, it is something that foster parents should not overlook.

This is a criminal behavior that the foster child must learn is wrong... more

When you work with foster children, you will learn that the traditional disciplining may not work for them, so you need to learn to be creative in this area. When a child has never played outside, had toys, watched cartoons or so many other things, then being grounded and not being able to do these things may not matter to him or her.

With some foster children, rewarding positive behavior can work, like being the one to choose the book I read to them, getting a special snack or drink, getting to go in the kitchen while I fix dinner and play, etc. For one of our foster daughters (nine years old), if she could get redirected without becoming hostile or at times aggressive, then she... more