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RHASHAWN (3/05) is a very lovable, three-year old toddler of Native Alaska and African American heritage. His disposition is usually happy, and he smiles often. He thrives on one-on-one attention from his significant adults. While this highly energetic little guy loves to run, climb, an jump, other areas of his development are more like that of a 15-month old child.

Rhashawn came into foster care following his birth in March 2005. Occupational therapy is addressing his daily living skills development, cognitive functioning, and adaptive behavior; and speech therapy is addressing his speech and language needs. His speech therapist says that he is making steady gains. Rhashwan also has symptoms of Pica, which is a tendency to eat non-food items. And he also has several severe allergies (e.g., eggs, peanuts, pollen, and some plants), which require strict adherence to an appropriate diet and medical monitoring.

Of course, Rhashawn feels some frustration and stress at not being able to be readily understood, and when he feels overwhelmed or tired he has tantrums. His foster parents have found that while he does not responds well to verbal commands, he can be nicely responsive to the use of behavioral tools, such as gentle redirection, soothing prompts, and behavior modeling by others around him.

His worker is interested in hearing from folk(s) who have experience or a good knowledge base of the needs of toddlers who delays in other areas of their development. She particularly wants to place Rhashwan with parent(s) who will make sure that he has the early childhood developmental services that he needs, and who will do their part in encouraging him to reach his full potential. While placing Rhashawn with a couple would be wonderful, His worker does not want to miss out on hearing from those exceptional single moms and single dads who have terrific support systems of family, friends, and community resources to assist them.

It will be important for Rhashawn’s adoptive folk(s) to have a good grasp of residual effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs. Rhashawn’s very young age is a great advantage, as the earlier developmental resources are implemented the more likely that that intervention will be helpful.


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