The Foster Child's Education: How foster parents can help *

The purpose of this paper is to provide one set of perspectives through which parents may wish to examine the ways in which they can assist their child's education. The remarks may apply equally to natural and foster parents, although special consideration will be given to the latter group where necessary. The paper focuses particularly on academic and social survival skills for children at school and the ways parents can extend and support this skill development at home.

Apart from the questionable connotation of disaster associated with survival at school, several writers (Adelman and Feshback, 1971; Greenwood et al., 1974; Hops et al., 1975) have attempted to define those behaviours which children need to display in order to succeed in the school environment. Though expectations may vary depending on age, class level, educational philosophy and so on, and though such a list may seem unnecessarily prescriptive, the skills mentioned below are generally required of children at school.