Mandel School professors develop new program to help adoptive families address developmental problems
PARTners program targeted at families with children adopted past early infancy
November 12, 2004 | For more information: Jeff Bendix (216)-368-6070
 November is National Adoption month, and while most adoptions are successful, research has shown that adopted children are at greater risk for experiencing emotional and developmental disabilities than are children raised by their biological parents, especially if the child is adopted beyond infancy.
Two professors from Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences will soon begin testing a model program designed to help adoptive families of infants, toddlers and young children. The program, Prevention Assessment Referral & Training (PARTners), is funded by a four-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
PARTners was developed by Victor Groza, professor of social work and chair of the Mandel School’s doctoral program; and Gerald Mahoney, the Verna Houck Motto Professor of Families and Communities. “The majority of children adopted today come from overseas or from the public system and the chances are high that at some time in their life they experienced neglect or abuse,” Groza said. “That experience can have a profound negative effect on their growth and development. Our goal with this program is to help parents spot developmental problems early, and develop strategies for dealing with them that can be easily incorporated into their daily life.”
Families who agree to participate in the PARTners pilot will receive hour-long visits once a week for either three months or six months from advanced master’s degree students at the Mandel School who have been trained in the program.
Mahoney explained that the program is designed to encourage interaction between parents and children based on the Responsive Teaching developmental intervention model. One example of an instructional strategy used in this model is “Take one turn and wait”. “The idea is for the parent to say or do something, and wait for the child to say or do something in response before moving on to the next action. It’s a fairly generic strategy that promotes balanced, reciprocal interactions between parents and children which can be used in just about any kind of interaction with young children,” Mahoney explained.
The model was first developed for use among families of children with developmental disabilities or autism, Mahoney said. One of the purposes of PARTners is to see if it can be adapted to adoptive families.
The ultimate goal of the PARTners program, Groza said, is to help adoption agencies make the most of visits with families following the adoption. “Right now these visits tend to be pretty unstructured. What’s exciting about this program is that it will give adoption workers a tool that will allow them to help adoptive families in a meaningful way.”
Groza said the program hopes to recruit about 40 families for the study. Families interested in participating should email Groza at victor.groza@case.edu, or Lindsey Houlihan at lindsey.houlihan@case.edu. Information is also available on the web site of the Center for Interventions for Children and Families at http://msass.case.edu/childrenandfamilies.
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