Occupational Therapy - The science of using everyday activities with specific goals, to help people of all ages prevent, lessen or overcome physical disabilities.
Open Adoption - Usually, an adoption where birth parents and adoptive parents meet, names and addresses may be exchanged and communication may continue indefinitely.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) - A recurrent pattern of negative, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures that persists for at least six months. This disorder is characterized by frequent occurrence of at least four of the following behaviors: frequent loss of temper, tendency to argue with adults, refusal to obey adult rules or requests, deliberate behaviors to annoy others, spiteful and vindictive behavior, being touchy or easily annoyed by others, being angry and resentful, use of obscene language and a tendency to blame others for mistakes or misbehaviors. Symptoms are less severe than those associated with Conduct Disorder but sometimes indicate the early stages of Conduct Disorder (CD) and may sometimes lead to the development of Antisocial Personality Disorder during adulthood.
Orphan - Child from another country that has no parents or only one parent that cannot care for them.
Orphan (international adoption definition) - For immigration purposes, a child under the age of 16:
• whose parents have died or disappeared
• who has been abandoned or otherwise separated from both parents
• whose sole surviving parent is impoverished by local standards and incapable of providing that child with proper care and who has, in writing, irrevocably released the child for emigration and adoption.
To enter the United States, an orphan must have been adopted abroad by a U.S. citizen or be admitted to the United States for the purpose of adoption by a U.S. citizen.
Orphanage - Institution that houses children who are orphaned, abandoned or whose parents are unable to care for them. Orphanages are rarely used in the United States, although they are more frequently used abroad.
Out-of-Home Care - Child care, foster care or residential care provided by persons, organizations and institutions to children who are placed outside their families, usually under the jurisdiction of juvenile or family court.
American Adoptions, a private adoption agency founded on the belief that lives of children can be bettered through adoption, provides safe adoption services to children, birth parents and adoptive families by educating, supporting and coordinating necessary services for adoptions throughout the United States. For more information on American Adoptions please call 1-800-ADOPTION (236-7846).
