Abstract
The way foster parents think about the child in their care is crucial to the way they respond to the child. The ability to accurately “read” the child’s cues has been called mind-mindedness and is seen as a foundation for parent sensitivity. Maltreatment affects both children’s ability to self-reflect and the negativity of their ideas about themselves, parents and caregivers. Parents influence the child’s capacity to self-reflect, and successful placements are associated with caregivers’ ability to reflect and empathise with the child. Foster parents who think about the child’s mind and emotions may have foster children with fewer emotional and behaviour problems. The Relational Learning Framework (RLF) is a way of helping foster parents access and think about the child’s perspective and unique emotional life and mental state.
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Kelly, W. (2017). Mind-Mindedness : The Meeting of Minds. In: Understanding Children in Foster Care. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65376-1_5
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