ESL for International Adoptees

Newsletter #59 for Internationally Adopting Parents
May 3, 2007
PAL Center Inc.

New Articles

Announcements

Group
Consultations

A new group consultation

Jean Mauro, LCSW, Psychotherapist specializing in children and families

In the midst of attachment issues:
What to do when you are concerned

During a group session we the following questions are addressed:

Parental expectations and the realities of bonding.
Practical bonding and attachment between you and your child of any age (What works and what doesn't).
How to deal with behavioral and emotional disturbances: excessive aggression, emotional detachment, clingy behavior.
How to develop a support system for your family.
Setting priorities and establishing routines.

Calendar
of other consultations

Courses &
Workshops for School Professionals

PAL Center, Inc. in cooperation with the BGCenter offers varies online courses about internationally adopted children at school for school professionals. These courses may be converted into a distance learning workshop, with the online course instructor taking your questions and answering them during a conference call.

Call PAL Center for details
845-357-2512

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

SLPAL
ESL Chanting for Classroom Management
Teaching ESL can be…. the way it was explained in the TESOL/TEFL course you took. So much so that you’ve even resorted to slamming books, hitting the blackboard, yelling, screaming, and other boisterous techniques for maintaining “control”.

Annabelle Rox
Aggression and Anger – Is My Child Normal?
Aggression and anger are quite normal during the process of growing up. Nobody is born with uncontrollable anger problems and most anger is short lived as a response to some frustrating or abusive situation. So how does it happen?

From Our Database

ESL for International Adoptees

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!

The specifics of English language acquisition by an internationally adopted child should be properly understood in order to modify ESL instructions accordingly. Internationally adopted children, though a part of a traditional English Language Learners (ELL) group, differ from the rest of the ELL population in many aspects.

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

Boris Gindis, Ph.D.
English as a Second Language (ESL) Instruction and Internationally Adopted Children: Are they perfect together?

Questions and Answers

Q. We will be bringing our 3.6 year old little girl home from Russia. We tested her on milestones and she seems to be on target or a little behind. Now the question is: "Who and how can do an assessment for her on arrival?" Could I use a translator to help with testing?

A. Adopting a Russian child, you have several choices:

1. You can do a psycho-educational screening on arrival in the Russian language by a specialist who understands the specifics of internationally adopted children from Russia. It's definitely the best option, as no translator can substitute the native knowledge of the child's language, culture, and circumstances. This type of screening will give you a baseline psycho-educational status of your daughter on arrival. All the rest of the programming/remediation (if necessary) will be based on it, and, in case there are learning disabilities, they will be apparent in the native language before the process of learning English starts interfering. If the assessment shows any issues, than you are prepared: you will have a required clinical report, necessary for requesting remedial services from your school district without "waiting for the child to learn more English".

2. You can have a psycho-educational screening with a qualified translator if a native speaking psychologist is not available to you, but it's clearly a limited option, though it's better in some cases than no screening at all.

3. For a physically healthy child without any "red flags" in their pre-adoption medical history, a thorough assessment by an experienced in international adoption pediatrician may be acceptable if the child is under 3-4 years old.

Boris Gindis, Ph.D.