Children need to know

Abstract

There are some cases of fostering in extended family in which the sheltered children are ignorant of some essential aspects of their own story and situation. In fact, the difficulty to communicate or clarify to the child his own story, or even the shelters denial to do it, are a central subject in the fostered child life, because of the possible negative effects in the personal and familiar world caused by the lack of correct explanations for him. The aim of this paper is to remark the importance of this matter in the evolution of the fostering and for the adequate emotional development of the sheltered child, to support the main role of the foster family in the process of making known to the child his own story and situation, and to propose what aspects must be communicated to the child, how this communication can be possible and when it is more suitable to carry out it.