Eastern European adoptions and RAD

I read a blog post over at World Magazine's blog related to the recent Russian adoption fiasco, where a family sent an adopted child back to Russia. This story was about another family who had managed to keep their adopted children, also Russian, instead of giving up. These children were all under 5 years old when they were brought into their new family. Now--

Ruggiero’s younger daughter is 17 and still screams. Ruggiero wrote poignantly that she doesn’t really have any real relationship with her older daughter who’s 19. Their 20-year-old son left home and lives on his own; he doesn’t communicate with the family. “There isn’t any doubt that we love them,” Ruggiero wrote, “but I think it’s hard for them to understand what love means.”

I continued through the story, and started reading the comments. Some people mentioned something called reactive attachment disorder, which is apparently a big problem with children adopted from orphanages in Eastern Europe.

I never knew this existed. But, it seems that with some special parenting techniques, these children can be changed and continue to live normally, and to trust, and love. Read the comments at World Magazine's post for some really interesting stories and insights into the difficulties with adopting kids who have this disorder.