Jo – 7-years-old

(quote of adopted child aged 7 years)

Jo is a fun loving and active seven year old child who enjoys life and has made good progress since becoming Looked After.  He has experienced much loss and change. Ethnic and Cultural Descent Jo is of Thai/White English origin.  He has not had any links with the Thai community whilst living with his foster carers. Jo does not present as curious about his perceived facial difference from his peers and sometimes needs reminding about the significance of his background and experiences.

Contact

Jo is a fun loving little boy who has experienced much loss and change in his brief years.  He has had no contact with his birth mother since coming to England at four years old.  He appears to have had a close relationship with his birth father; however his father has been unable to be consistently available to him. Jo has had irregular contact with his father since becoming looked after and has had no contact for a significant period of time due to his father's withdrawal from the assessment process.

Emotional and Behavioural Development

Jo presents as a quiet child. The foster carer has a busy household and Jo appears to thrive in this; this may be because he is able to blend into the background and there is no pressure upon him to make secure relationships. The foster carer says Jo does not find it easy to indicate to adults verbally or through his actions about how he is feeling and is not an affectionate or tactile child. He is able to express happiness and excitement, particularly when in the company of other children.

Jo loves to please adults and there is very much a sense that he has been used to being self reliant because of his experiences with a father who was often not in a position to respond to his needs. He does get easily upset when he feels that he hasn’t pleased an adult or if things don’t go his way. Jo is a little boy who needs to be allowed to experience emotions of both a positive and negative nature. Although presenting as a self sufficient seven year old, he is emotionally younger and would benefit from the carers treating him as a younger child in order that he can go back and revisit the early care that he has missed.

Jo's behaviour has been manageable in the foster home. When he first became looked after he found it difficult to make or maintain eye contact, this is improving. He presents as a quiet child, the foster carer says it is difficult to assess how he is feeling. He is self sufficient and does not readily approach his carers for comfort or protection, although over time he is beginning to do this with the female foster carer.

Jo is a very active little boy who loves being out on the trampoline and running around the garden. He also loves and is developing skills in playing football. He is very proud of his BMX bike and loves trying out new tricks on it and he appears to have very good coordination in doing this.

When outdoors the outgoing side of his personality shines and Jo will be the life and soul of the party when accompanying the foster family to their caravan site in the summer where he takes every opportunity to get up on the stage and perform through song or dance.

He thrives on the company of other children although sometimes struggles to understand how to regulate the energy this induces in him (making him present as loud and boisterous).

Educational and Social Functioning

Jo is now in Year Two. Academically he is an able class member, however his low self esteem and confidence means that sometimes he is reluctant to show what he can do. He is slightly below average for English and is average for Maths. Jo is good at technical problem solving. When doing something he enjoys or understands he is able to engage and concentrate.

Self-Care Skills

Jo has good self care skills. He seems to be competent in looking after himself. The foster carer feels that he has been left to his own devices as he never asks for any help or support, he needs encouragement to ask for help and adopters who understand that he will benefit from being allowed to regress and be responded to as a younger child.

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