The Other Part of the Equation: You and Your Family

Newsletter #4 for Internationally Adopting Parents
February 5, 2006
PAL Center Inc.

In this issue

Adoption training courses are convenient and most affordable way
to quickly access a psychological consultation on the issues you
need to address.
Check out the course library,
use the opportunity to speak to the instructors

Q My daughter, now 10 and home 4 years is having problems with all academics. She has been diagnosed with ADHD and had a school and psych assessments which revealed that she did not need an IEP. I was asking for a 504 but that was also denied. Should I push for this?

A Keep 504 as your “spare wheel” and go for IDEA plan (IEP). If you firmly believes that your daughter is not progressing in school and needs an intense and focused remediation, you should go for a private psycho-educational assessment with someone in your state who knows internationally adopted post-institutionalized children's problems. Even if you have to travel for this assessment – it is worth it.

Not knowing your daughter, but having worked with IA older adopted children since 1992, I suspect that she may have what is called CCD (see:Specific Features of Cumulative Cognitive Deficit (CCD) and/or language based learning problems (see: What Should Adoptive Parents Know About Language-based School Difficulties of Their Children).

The online class School Issues of Internationally Adopted Children: Language, Behavior, and Academic Functioning may be also helpful in understanding of your child's issues and things to do to remediate the problems.

B. Gindis Ph.D.

You receive this newsletter as a former client 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

We all know that internationally adopted children may often need an intense remedial work at school to compensate for their difficult start in life and catch up with their peers academically. A lot can and should be done at home, and it does not need to be another classroom session. The activities can be fun and emotionally and cognitively rich at the same time.

Here is a new article of Deanna Mascle, who speaks about the ways to make your child more interested in developing this vitally necessary skill of reading.
8 specific ways you can make your child a reader!

We published articles on what else you (and your babysitter) can do with your child at home. See the recent articles of Dr. Boris Gindis:

Activities to Promote Healthy Development
The most important task in the first weeks and months of adoption is to strengthen attachment with your internationally adopted child. Playing and taking care of the child’s basic needs (feeding, bathing, etc.) will constitute your major occupation at this time. Without being intrusive, try to have as much physical contact with the child as possible using shared activities.

SmartStart: Home-Based Cognitive and Language Remediation Program for Internationally Adopted Children
The parents of internationally adopted children specifically need to work on their child's cognitive language and, possibly, missed learning skills, normally acquired by the child's peers in this country without special training. The activities are selected to promote cognitive development in 7 areas (one unit - one area), and are not just a mere collection of typical for the age activities. The value of these sets of activities is in giving you the understanding and the examples of why and how mediation (explanation to the child) is done.

From our database:
The Other Part of the Equation:
You and Your Family

International adoption is stressful for an adopted child, who has enormous difficulties to overcome to fit into a new family, language, culture, and so much more. But what about you? Are you strong, determined and healthy enough to meat the challenges? What about other members of the family? Two authors share their thoughts.

Harriet White McCarthy
Post Adoption Depression - The Unacknowledged Hazards
Why does Post Adoption Depression exist among the adoption community in such high numbers? There are a host of very concrete and understandable reasons.

Gary Direnfeld, MSW, RSW
Parental Guilt and Kids with Special Needs
Parents who undertake heroic actions are at risk of burnout themselves. Further, marriages under such strain are at risk of dissolving thus actually placing an even greater burden of care on the primary caregiver, which then intensifies their risk of burnout.

Gary Direnfeld, MSW, RSW
Sibling Issues When One Has Special Needs: Am I my brother’s keeper?
By virtue of a child’s special needs, more attention and parental and family resources are drawn to that child. This in and of itself can set the stage for resentment or animosity with other siblings. Further, additional responsibilities placed on the well siblings for the direct care of the one with special needs can add to bad feelings.