Building Bonds: Strategies for Connecting Emotionally with Your Foster Child
How to connect with a foster child
All children are different and so are their emotional needs. As a caregiver, it’s important to create emotional connections with them to ensure they feel supported and that they trust you. In this article we’ll explain some ways you can connect with a foster child.
As a carer there might be times where you need additional support to help you build a connection with a young person in your care. This is normal and there are plenty of ways that we can help you do that.
Strategies for building emotional connections with a foster child
Spend quality time with them
Whether it be watching a movie together or sitting down and doing an activity, spending quality time with a foster child is a great way to build a connection with them.
Let them build trust with you
It’s important to give children time and space to build trust in you. Ensure they know that you’re available to them and they will build trust on their own terms.
Listen to them
One of the biggest ways to build any relationship and connect with anyone, on an emotional level, is to listen to them. The more that you listen to them, the more comfortable they will feel in confiding in you.
Give them praise
When your foster child displays positive behaviour or does something worthy of recognition, it’s important to praise them for it. Even small achievements can be praised, and this will have a positive impact on their confidence and development.
Respect their boundaries and privacy
When building an emotional connection with a foster child, it’s important to respect their boundaries and physical contact limits. Make sure that they know that they can openly communicate with you about their comfort.
Other strategies on how to connect with a foster child include:
- Being patient with them. They will open to you when they feel ready to, and sometimes this can take a bit of time.
- Offer them reassurance. This can be helpful in building trust.
- Respect their needs and individuality.
- Communicate with them in an open and non-judgmental manner.
Why is it important to bond with your foster child?
By establishing emotional connections and bonds with your foster child, it can help you maintain a positive relationship with one another. One that has boundaries, common-understanding, open-communication and transparency. It allows you to respond to their needs more effectively and builds mutual respect between one another.
Building emotional connections with foster children can also have vast benefits on their ability to socialise and connect with other people. These skills and strategies might also be effective in their future relationships with other people.
Some children in care have experienced trauma and neglect, thus, by supporting them to bond with others, this can have a positive influence on their emotional wellbeing and their relationship with themselves and others.
Our team will guide you on how to connect with a child
Our experienced team of foster care practitioners regularly support carers and the children in their care to build emotional connections. Every family is different and so are children. Foster children have different experiences, and that is something our team can help you navigate.
Whether you’re in the process of becoming a carer, or have been one for some time, Anglicare’s Foster and Kinship Care team will be there to support you at every stage of your journey. As one of Queensland’s leading foster care agencies, we are committed to providing carers with ongoing training and support to ensure that they feel confident and supported in their role. For more information on the support we provide for carers, head to our resource library, here.
