When you become a foster carer you are allowed some preference about the demographic of children you are willing to look after.
There are placements of every age to navigate, and some carers may only be willing to look after teenagers, while others will only want younger children. If you are a carer about to start fostering toddlers, there are thankfully handy tips out there to help smoothen the journey.
Secure Your Property
This step is essential. Toddlers are, by their very nature, curious about the world around them. Even a child who has trauma or insecure attachments which have led to shyness or a reluctance to participate will want to explore their surroundings eventually. Thankfully, your foster agency will have official guidelines on what to prepare and how. Depending on the age, you may need stair guards and socket protectors, for instance.
Routine, Routine, Routine!
As soon as the initial settling in period has passed, figure out how to implement a predictable and therefore reliable routine into your household. You’ll receive some training on this, but maintaining a consistent routine is especially important for children — something every good early learning centre emphasises to help little ones feel secure and adjust smoothly to new environments. It is one of the easiest ways to hold boundaries and create a sense of safety and dependability within your household.
Don’t Be Rigid About Food
Different ages bring unique experiences to work through. Food can be a major trigger for a child of any age, but with toddlers, it can be particularly interesting to figure out. They may have had negative experiences with nutrition, or there is a high chance they could have never tried healthy food. Your job is to get their diet back on track, but don’t beat yourself up about it. Aim for the standard five a day and if small portions at regular intervals work better, roll with it! There are no rules here, as long as the child gets the vitamins and nutrients that they need to be healthy and develop.
Therapeutic Parenting Methods Always Work Better
As a foster carer, you will go through a lot of behavioural management strategies. This process will enable you to learn how to respond to different emotions in a more appropriate way than perhaps traditional parenting may have shown in the past. Parents and carers are allowed to be frustrated, you are only human after all. If you have birth children at home, you will understand this feeling all too well. However, when it comes to toddlers (and teens too), gentle and therapeutic approaches are always better for re-affirming attachment boundaries and creating security within your environment. When an adult takes the time to be patient, and connect with behaviour instead of reacting in kind, they are allowing a connection and role modelling regulation.
Toddlers Like Fun
A common strategy for building trust and establishing a connection with young children is through play and fun, including days out. Fun-led play and exploration speak to this age group because it is their primary form of exploration. Toddlers are led by their impulses, e.g., they do what feels right in the moment and listen to their heart a lot. Foster carers can work anywhere in the country with an agency like Orange Grove Foster Care, so this means you have to check out fun things to do near to your home specifically. The days out will change from area to area, but the fostering allowance should facilitate keeping the toddlers nice and busy with new experiences.
Keep Track of Development Milestones
It is common for toddlers in care to exhibit delayed development. While it’s not true of every child that comes into the care system, look out for signs of missed milestones. Keep in mind that every kid develops differently but if there are major speech delays after 24 months, for instance, this is something that needs exploring further. As a foster carer, you can flag concerns with your social worker, and they will direct you to the most appropriate course of action.
Toddlers are small humans with big emotions, so you will be able to put all of your hard work and training into action every day. Finding ways to help them regulate and reach developmental non-negotiables will be a big part of your role. Modelling secure attachments and safe adults will be another part of your role. The job of fostering toddlers is varied but highly rewarding.
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