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More training and more support would definitely make a huge difference - and maybe preserve some of the placements that fail! You are so right that what we do instinctively as moms (and dads) doesn't necessarily WORK with kids with various different disorders. And whose to know? Most of us find out by a lot of trial and error. My foster son started out as my student, and I have to tell you there is NO better training for teachers, either. We have training in some of the biggies, like Autism and FAS - but I'd never HEARD of RAD and such others as a teacher. In fact, I have to tell you this funny story - when we had a staff meeting regarding my now foster son, early last Septemeber, it was to tell us that he is (among other things) diagnosed ADHD and ODD. One of the teachers in the room got this strange look on his face and said "Why do they want to tell us he is odd? LOTS of our students are kind of odd!". Point is - we'd never heard of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and had no tools to deal with it - and I"VE now been the one teaching everyone else, and only because I've really worked hard to educate myself, and learned through my "baptism by fire" in actually LIVING with A.
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