Mary Hopkins-Best, Ed.D.

Mary Hopkins-Best is a professor of education, but in her real life she is the mom of two: one by birth and one who joined the family as a toddler through adoption. Mary’s experience as both
an expert educator and as a competent and motivated parent still found her inadequately
prepared for the complexities of parenting a child whose developmental age made it
nearly impossible to help him put into words for working out the issues that came
from having had many life experiences before he found permanency. Many adoption professionals
and social workers seem oblivious to how adopting a child at the toddler developmental
stage demands unique preparation far different from that provided for those adopting
either infants or school-aged children. And so Toddler Adoption: The Weaver’s
Craft, a first in the field, was born. Contact Dr. Hopkins-Best via e-mail
at hopkinsbestm@uwstout.edu in Wisconsin.

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