Services for adopted children

Newsletter #41 for Internationally Adopting Parents
December, 2006
PAL Center Inc.

In this issue

Post-adoption family consultation and counceling

The format of a group consultation:

Focused on a specific post-adoption issue, a small group of 4-8 families (parents, no children) gathers at the BGCenter on the date and time, scheduled for the group of your choice led by one or two moderators.

A moderator is a professional (child psychologist, therapist, pediatrician, school administrator or lawyer) specializing in the related services to adoptive families and/or children.

Every consultation includes:

Introduction
The moderator's presentation on the specified issue
Case presentation by each family with group discussion and the moderator's recommendations
Concluding remarks by the moderator: action plan for dealing with the problem in question

The length of a consultation session is 3 hours.

Prices and schedules will be announced

You receive this newsletter as a former client or correspondent of
the Center for Cognitive-Developmental Assessment & Remediation, or a former student
of the BGCenter Online School,
or a user of the International Adoption Articles Directory.

Latest Articles
from the
International Adoption Articles Directory

Group Consultation #3

Organization of the effective remedial system for an older internationally adopted child

Moderator
Boris Gindis, Ph.D.
Most adopted children arrive with some developmental delays; the lack of the English language mastery is an additional obstacle they need to overcome. Where to begin and what exactly to do to intensify the remediation? We will discuss the entire "road map for remediation": what and when should be done in the family, at school and in the community to maximize the efforts:

Obtaining base measurements

School placement possibilities

Supportive services

Home-based support

Available specialized programs and their application

Did I miss anything? Your child's current remedial program discussion

Group Consultation #4

Behavioral issues: are these mental health problems, or post-institutional behavior, or lack of parental techniques?

Moderator
Boris Gindis, Ph.D.

We will be discussing the cases of your child's behavior, keeping in mind different causes of troublesome behavior. Do you know the difference between the behaviors pointing to a certain medical condition and simple post-institutional behaviors?

Recognizing institutional patterns of behavior and working on their correction

Behavior patterns, specific to varies medical conditions

Do behaviors at school and at home differ?

Disability manifestation determination

Behavior management techniques

Dealing with the extreme cases

Speech Pathologist's Corner

Steps to Help Your Child Acquire English Language Skills

In this newsletter we begin printing 4 steps that our speech pathologist Natalia Likhtik offers to new adoptive parents as a guide for helping children acquire the English language faster.

Step 1

Teaching children whose first language is not English can be very challenging, especially if you do not speak or understand the child's native language. In addition to being considerate of general communication process, you need to be supportive of cultural differences, the child's emotional needs, and educational guidelines.

Learning language is most successful and efficient when learning occurs in a meaningful context, with you conscientiously providing appropriate labels and language models to describe the child's ongoing actions and experiences.

Goal:

A child has to improve understanding of the English language

A child has to begin communicate in English

A child has to learn popular American English social routines

Strategies:

Talk to children in English about ongoing events.

Incorporate gestures to support understanding of a specific word (e.g., demonstrate "under vs. over" when using these terms).

Reduce rate of speech (i.e., speak slower, especially when introducing new concepts and language forms).

Re-phrase questions/comments to simplify language when message is unclear.

Incorporate redundancy of key phrases and words in order to improve message clarity (e.g., "The first thing to do is to fold the paper when you make your Mother's Day card. Okay, fold your paper.")

Provide positive feedback for the child's attempt to use English. (e.g., "Wow! I'm so proud of you. You used your English to ask for help!")

Encourage the child's use of English: repeat, expand and/or correctly restate the child's attempts to use English; respond with direct contrasting model immediately following the child's utterance to help teach proper language forms (e.g., "My turn. It's my turn. Yes, it is your turn.")

Limit the child's verbal choices when your child is expected to respond in English (e.g., "Did you see a big black bug or a blue butterfly?")

Target some highly repetitive, prop-laden home routines and activities to be conducted only in English (e.g., opening circle and tooth brushing).

Introduce favorite English songs with instructional, functional actions.

Compiled by Natalia Likhtik
Licensed Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist
www.bgcenter.com/BE/NLikhtik.htm
www.bgcenter.com/BGCenterServices/SpeechandLanguage.htm