Did You Know . . . Language Development is Complex? (Series, 2 of ___ )

Our first "Did You Know?" post touched on the fact that our adoptive children will be immersed in a world speaking an entirely different language.  That can be frightening.  It can also be difficult, and have widespread educational impact.

Here is an excerpt from the American Speech Language Hearing Association Division 14 Newsletter -

"The loss of the first language before the new language develops leaves the internationally adopted child in a linguistic and educational limbo.  Unlike the bilingual child who has a strong first language to fall back on, the internationally adopted child suddenly has no communicative language until English develops.  This is a significant issue for older adopted children who need to begin school right away.  Because they are not proficient in English, cognitive and linguistic development is often negatively affected.  Consider this scenario:

 

The typical 6-year-old understands over 20,000 English words.  A 5-year-old adopted from another country would need to learn an average of 54 new words every day in order to fully catch up in language comprehension abilities by age 6.  However, while this child has been playing catch-up, his 6-year-old friends have also added an average of 5,000 words to their vocabulary.  In summary, expecting older children to develop proficient English language skills within one or two years of adoption is unrealistic.  Learning a new language to proficiency takes years."

More info can be found at http://pages.towson.edu/sglennen/index.htm.