Gather information during the child’s transition to your care to find out as much information as you can from the people in their lives who know them well:
- Find out about their routines.
- What things are important to that particular child?
- What do you need to have in place or replicate?
- What are triggers for anxiety?
- What do you need to avoid?
- What are their dislikes?
- What is known to help the child feel safe, calm and secure? Food may be very important to the child (e.g. they may not eat anything red, they might like certain textures). Find out as much as you can! You will need to consider all of their sensory needs
- What will overload them and cause anxiety?
- Do they have a sensory diet /daily activity plan?
- Do not change too much too quickly
- Do not throw anything away that belongs to the child when they come into your care.
- Resist the urge to go out and buy loads of new things, it may be overloading for the child.
- Give your foster child or young person space. They will need time to adjust to this huge change to their life.
- Take a low-key approach and do not feel that you need to fill every moment of their time but do have some structure in place using your knowledge about them and what makes them feel safe and secure. You should put in boundaries straight away as it can be very challenging and confusing to move the goal posts later
- Expect the unexpected behaviours can change and be replaced with new behaviours. Anxieties can both increase and reduce.
