Introduction

The SmartStart Toolbox Program is created for two distinct categories of users: professionals (adoption agency workers, child psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists, family therapists/counselors, educators/remedial specialists working with international adoptees either directly or through adoptive families) and parents of internationally adopted post-institutionalized children who are a very special group – highly educated and greatly motivated – caregivers. The goal of this Program is to help adoptive parents and professionals implement family-based activities that form the basis for educational and social remediation of children adopted from orphanages outside of the United States. Issues specific to this population, such as attachment and self-regulation of behavior and attention are specifically addressed.