If you have completed an adoption homestudy and would like to have your information forwarded to this child's worker, contact us.

KATTUZZA (1/00) is a darling child of Alaskan Native heritage who is waiting for her adoption family. Kattuzza has some nice strengths for her adoptive folk(s) to enjoy and to build upon. She has a determined, independent streak and likes to accomplish tasks on her own. So does, though, enjoy having adults work right along beside her. She is artistic and imaginative, which opens many creative avenues for her. She has good manners and likes to be helpful. She is responsive to interactive pursuits and pastimes. And she is developing a love of reading. Some of her favorite activities are coloring, drawing, arts and crafts, and collecting things. She also enjoys story time and interactive games.

Having the right home environment will be a key to helping Kattuzza be successful in her adoptive family. She is clearly at her best when she is in a calm, consistent, predictable environment with attentive adults nearby. In the comfort of such a setting, Kattuzza is at her most playful, kind, and engaging. She can even play well with another child one-on-one and sometimes in a very small group. However, numerous people and activities in one setting may lead to melt downs.

Kattuzza, who came into foster care in November 2002, is legally free. Her special needs have both biological and environmental causes and include prenatal exposure to alcohol, early neglect, and abandonment. Multiple placements in foster care and lack of permanency have also contributed to her issues, including her difficulty trusting and forming attachments.

To help her begin to deal with her anger and rage, difficulty trusting, and oppositional behavior, Kattuzza was enrolled in August 2007 in a residential treatment center. With the high level of structure at the center, which helps her to feel safe and secure, and the ready availability of childcare staff and counselors to assist her, Kattuzza is making progress slowly but surely. Medication therapy is a significant component of her treatment. Kattuzza is also developing some strategies that help her remember to take care of her daily self-care needs – such strategies are often helpful to kids whose memories are challenged by fetal alcohol effects.

In school, Kattuzza has met the goals of her individual education plan, and is achieving at grade level. Interestingly, she rarely has behavioral problems in the classroom.

Kattuzza’s worker is especially interested in placing her in a two-parent home as an only child with parents who have a lot of time and attention to devote to helping her be successful. It will be very important for her adoptive folks to have a good grasp of the behavioral issues involved in attachment difficulties and what kinds of appropriate interventions are available to assist parents and child. Parenting Kattuzza is going to require folks who have the ability to accept a child unconditionally and who are willing and able to hang in there with her over the rough patches. For the folks who have that level of commitment and patience, the rewards will be significant. Kattuzza is a child with lots of potential.


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