Preparing for the Trip to Bring the Child Home

Newsletter #3 for Internationally Adopting Parents
January 29, 2006
PAL Center Inc.

In this issue

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need to address.
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Q...She is 15 years old and is placed in the 8th grade. Her most significant problems are coming from Math. She is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress. She will result to cheating from time to time. I truly believe that the lack of accommodations in the past has left her with a less than solid academic foundation. This is a student who could be absolutely lost once she enters the high school next year. What accommodations would be appropriate to begin the process of preparation for the next level?

A You have described a somewhat typical story of an older internationally adopted child, who was neglected educationally in her own country and who apparently did not receive enough remedial support on arrival. Both of these factors, especially if combined, can lead to the Cumulative Cognitive Deficit (CCD) in a child. It appears that your child needed and still needs an intensive remedial effort. She should be placed with her peers in all non-academic subjects (to prevent the intensification of her emotional issues) and offered remedial classes/help in every academic subject, especially in math. The appropriate educational testing should show you how far back in the curriculum she needs to go. She has to acquire and reinforce the basics, and experience some success to be willing to go further and work harder. The intensity of the efforts is the key, as she apparently missed a lot of time (it takes time to develop CCD), and the negative attitudes toward cognitive activities settled in. But the longer is the delay and the weaker is the intensity of the efforts, the less successful may be the remediation.

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

Boris Gindis, Ph. D.
Internationally adopted post-institutionalized students
in an ESL class

Historically, ESL was designed for students from new immigrant families. At present, ESL is a mandatory, federally funded program for every non-English speaking child who enters the public school system. The teaching methodology of ESL programs is for children from families where another language is spoken. Moreover, the acceptance into the program assumes this premise. However, from the time of adoption internationally adopted children live in monolingual (English only) families, not in the families where "other-than-English" language is used. Indeed, we have a unique and paradoxical situation when students, who are legally eligible for ESL, have the English language as their home language!

Read more

Gary Direnfeld, MSW, RSW
Understanding and managing the impact of childhood sexual abuse on adult intimate life

Relationships are best when wholesome and respectful. Childhood sexual abuse can harm people as children and then gain when as adults they seek intimate expression. However, problems can be overcome...

Read more

From our database:
Preparing for the Trip to Bring the Child Home

Take with you:

Adoptive parent medicine chest or what medicines to bring with you on your adoption trip, in case your child gets sick.
by Alla Gordina, MD, FAAP

As with the other aspects of an adoption, there is a great deal of controversy around the question of what medications to bring with you on your trip. There are elaborate packages of antibiotics and other prescription medications that are marketed to adoptive families. The major question is what to treat? with what to treat? and actually – to treat or not to treat at all?

Bring back with you:

Availability and reliability of records in Russian orphanages
by Alla Gordina, MD, FAAP

During the process of adoption from the Former Soviet Unions (FSU), families are forced to ascertain the health and developmental status of their potential child based on medical reports provided by orphanages, evaluation by the in-country medical professionals (when available), and on the family’s personal experience during the visit(s) with the child in the orphanage. Proper use of the documents, typically present in any orphanage file, can make the process of adoption more informed and somewhat less stressful. Besides the medical and educational value of such documents, there is a potential present and future sentimental value of this paperwork to the adoptive family and adopted child.

The educational information you need to bring back from Russia
by Boris Gindis Ph.D.

While in Russia, try to obtain educational information, important for your child's proper academic placement in the USA. It is a well-known fact that actual academic performance (even in an other country, foreign language, and different curriculum) is the best future academic functioning predictor. This happens because of a transfer of knowledge, academic skills, and work habits from one language to another, from one educational system to another. It is important to know your child's actual academic status in Russian school ...