Due to Covid-19 and how the world has come to a hault, our fostering agency decided that there are important things a fostering family shouldn’t miss out on. With clear guidelines from the Government to stay at home, it’s vital for foster children to settle in with you at quickly as possible. This includes any friends or family that your foster children will need to meet.
Maintaining special relationships has never been more important and in this article, our fostering agency have put together a guide on how to prepare for your foster children to meet family virtually, through apps and programs like Zoom, Skype and Facetime, as well as calls and messages.
Fostering agency advice – keep it consistent and recognisable
Change in itself can be very daunting for your foster children. As a foster agency who deal with children from all walks of live, our first suggestion is to make regular contact with your family and friends. This helps with routine and lessens the chance of unexpected change for your children. It may be worth using the same area to hold your Skype, Zoom or Facetime calls so that your children become accustomed to it. Before you start the calls, ask family and friends to check their settings to ensure no triggers are there. For example, any art or magazines or pictures that could trigger bad memories.
Limit distractions and keep focused
This might sound like a given but your foster children are meeting your friends and family for the first time and this is a very big step. As a foster agency, we can work on techniques to help you limit distractions but there are some quick wins you can implement straight away. Together, you and your foster children can come up with a list of things you want to talk about or ask about. Be sure to warn your friends and family before the call of any topics or questions they should avoid or not mention altogether. This way, you can ensure a smooth call. By staying focused on the call throughout, it will help your foster children to remain reassured and comfortable.
It can be more than just a chat
Depending on the age of your fostering children, a few activities or games may be a good idea. This will help to keep the children’s attention and make it less formal. This is also a good way to give your foster children something to look forward to as sitting in front of a screen is very new to them, and attention spans will be very short if they’re younger.
Make sure you know how things work
The last thing we want as a fostering agency is to see you get flustered or agitated when technologically doesn’t work in the way we want it to. This can happen; it’s in the nature of technology. However, if you let your emotions get in the way, this can cause your foster children to become agitated and uncomfortable to. We suggest setting up the call or practising prior to the scheduled call without your foster children present. Once this has become more of a routine and everyone involved is happy, you don’t have to check beforehand.
How our fostering agency can help
Covid-19 is difficult enough without the worry of trying to introduce new foster children to family and friends. Fostering Dimensions are always available should you need some guidance and help. We can help to reduce anxiety so that you, as foster parents, can focus on well-being and relationship building with your foster children.
During this time of uncertainty due to Covid-19, we will be on hand as usual for any fostering-related questions, including those which arise as a result of coronavirus. If you need any support, advice or simply someone to talk to, please get in touch.