Native language attrition in internationally adopted children

Newsletter #17 for Internationally Adopting Parents
May 14, 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: Shall I use books, tapes, videos, etc. to prevent my daughter from losing her native language?

A: There is one specific problem I would like you to be sensitive to. Please be sure that these activities (songs, games, etc.) are really a pleasurable experience for your child. The native language in post-institutionalized children may be associated with bitter feelings of pain, discomfort and anxiety. Very often these are unconscious feelings resulting from deprivation, hunger, abuse that these children had experienced in their early years. Unfortunately, this is a more common situation than is usually understood, at least in my clinical experience.

Q: Does reading correlate at all with speaking at age appropriate levels?

A: A detailed answer can be found at www.bgcenter.com/bgqa/language2.htm

Dr. Boris 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

MaryJo Wagner, Ph.D.
Ten Easy Ways to Help Kids Learn: A Brain-based Learning Strategy that Really Works

Crossing the mid-line is a simple brain-based-learning strategy with dozens of variations that kids and adults can easily do throughout the day. Use these teacher resources and parent tips to help kids improve reading, do homework, and learn new skills. Use them yourself to improve job performance or teaching. Helps everybody focus on the task at hand and get it done.

Boris Gindis Ph.D.
The signs of speech and language delay in young internationally adopted children

This article was inspired by a telephone consultation with a prospective parent concerned about a 3 year old child from South America, who she was considering for adoption. A pediatrician evaluated the child and gave him a “clean bill of health” but was doubtful about his speech: the child was not talking at all and instead pointed at things as a means of expressing himself. The child had a hearing test which came back fine.
The parent wanted to know how this situation with an obvious language delay could be interpreted, and what the prognosis for recovery from such delay might be. As required for the consultation, the parent provided a list of questions that she wanted to discuss with me. The questions were very detailed and well formulated, and I felt that the same concerns may be on the minds of many other adoptive parents, as significant developmental delay is not an exception, but rather a rule with many internationally adopted children.

From our database:
Native language attrition in internationally adopted children

Boris Gindis Ph.D.
What should adoptive parents know about their children’s language-based school difficulties?
Part I: Native language attrition

Language is a powerful tool that mediates all aspects of our life, either enhancing or inhibiting performance in all domains. Having a solid biological foundation, language, as no other human ability, is sensitive to cultural and social influences. Like any other psychological function, if not in use, language ceases to exist.

Part II: Cognitive/academic implications of rapid first language loss
Language is a mediator, a key element in most cognitive and behavioral skills. If the tool is taken away in an abrupt manner, all these skills can deteriorate too.

Part IV: Language issues of children adopted at an early age
Is it possible that children adopted internationally as early as 18-24 months of age may still experience language-based academic problems during their school years? The answer is “yes.”