The first time I met my foster child

It is National Autism Awareness Month and throughout April, St Christopher’s Foster Carer Cynthia will tell how she fostered a child with autism, hyperactivity disorder, eurensis, oppositional defiance disorder, ADHD and more.

When I first meet my foster child in May 2011, he was in his final year of primary school. During the induction period I was given the opportunity to observe him in class. When he saw me he was laughing and flapping his hands as if to say hello, (later I learned those actions meant he was afraid), but there was nothing to indicate that I would have anything to worry about.

The following scenario is a snapshot of my first experiences of his behaviour difficulties which was an eye-opener on first day of the placement. I was helping his carer to bring the luggage into the house and to my dismay I noticed that he was frantically running around the parked cars stepping in and out of the mud, with no apparent awareness of danger. At the same time he was trying to snap off the windscreen wipers from the cars without a care in the world of what he was doing.

Once all the formalities were over and everyone had left the house, he spent the rest of the time getting to know us in a very negative way. He was trying to push the settee over on its back, (he seemed extremely strong for his skinny frame) and he was goading me to call the police officer. This is the moment I felt I was in for more than I had bargained for.

In my next blog I will tell you about how I helped my foster child to settle in and slowly we began to make progress together.