Adoption Planning for Handicapped Children

Abstract

Major changes are taking place in the field of adoption. Once concerned primarily with the placement of newborn infants, the field has broadened, with a major emphasis on the adoption of older children, often from foster care and many times with major handicaps or problems.

These children require special families who are willing to adopt them. They require the services of skilled social workers to effectively place them, and they require the understanding of the physician who may be involved either with their placement examination or with their subsequent management as an adoptee. A new objective approach to the problem is necessary.