What Age Child Is Easiest To Adopt?

The answer to that question depends on who you ask.

In the early days of adoption, it was common for social workers and foster parents to ask children how old they thought they were. But the practice fell out of favor over time, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Today, when an adoptive parent is asked to describe the age of the child they are adopting, the social worker asks the parent to guess based on the child's physical appearance, such as whether he or she looks younger or older than a toddler or older than a teen.

The new report from the HHS Office of Child Support Enforcement found that this approach is more accurate, but it's also more subjective, meaning it can vary depending on the person asking the question and the cultural background of the child being adopted.

The HHS report also looked at the ages of children adopted internationally and those adopted domestically, finding that the majority of children adopted domestically were toddlers (6 months to 2 years) while the majority of children adopted internationally were infants (0 to 5 months), according to the report.

The report noted that this could be due to the fact that international adoptions tend to happen through networks of family and friends, which may have different expectations about how long it takes to adopt.

Another potential reason is that the number of international adoptions has been declining since the late 1990s, according to the report.

While it may seem obvious, the age of a child can have a big impact on what kind of medical care they need, the report noted. For example, the risk of developing asthma increases with age.

That's why it's important to ask the right questions, said Amy Smith, chief executive of the National Association of Social Workers. She said it's good to understand the child's developmental stage, but the most important thing is to determine whether the child is developmentally ready to handle the stress of adopting.

There are also other questions that may help to determine whether a child is developmentally ready to adopt, Smith said.

"Do they have enough experience with their caregiver?" she said. "Does the caregiver have experience with children? Do they have sufficient time to bond? Are they ready to make this transition?"

A parent should also ask whether the child is old enough to understand the importance of respecting the birth family, Smith said.

The best time to start thinking about adoption is when a child is born, Smith said. However, the best time to start the process is often right before the baby is born, she said.

For more information about the process of adopting, contact your local social services agency or state department of human services.