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Hooked on Phonemes and Reciprocity: What Children Need Before They Can Learn Vocabulary and Syntax
Language isn't just vocabulary and syntax. Language includes body position, the ability to engage and disengage, the ability to attend to appropriate sounds while filtering out unnecessary noises, the ability to understand emotional tone, and everything else you can imagine about the way we communicate with each other. Once your child is physically well, has you as a secure emotional base, knows how to attend to your phonemes, and understands how to take turns with you, they will truly be ready to learn language. After all, language is just a symbolic way of relating to each other. Vocabulary and syntax just make communications more efficient. The relationships are what really count.
Children from institutions often have speech delays. Compared with most young students of English as a Second Language, children adopted from institutions will probably take longer than 'normal' to learn English. If the child has language delays in their original language they should begin to receive speech therapy as soon as they are settled in. Speech delays are caused by many factors. The most important factor may be untreated ear infections which cause hearing impairments. Opportunity to model speech is also limited. Children are often grouped by age in orphanages so they don't have the benefit of imitation of older peers. Caregivers don't always have time to talk with the children, so the children have less chance to learn language. These children don't have the same range of learning experiences as children raised in families. When they come to the US, they are struggling to make sense of a completely unfamiliar experience. And because of the restricted environment in the orphanages, children may not have had the sensory input necessary for cognitive development during critical periods of growth and brain development. They need all the help they can get.
Learn as much as you can of your child's original language before you adopt, if possible. Children begin to process language long before they learn to speak, probably as young as 3 months. Do you really need to learn their language? Maybe. Will it make any difference? Maybe. Won't it confuse the child if you are trying to teach them English? No, I believe it will help. You should not expect to be able to help your child retain their original language unless you are completely fluent in that language and you use it in a functional way; this is not our goal in most cases. We want our kids to develop functional use of the English language so they can succeed in life.
When we met our son, at age 3, he had no expressive language skills whatsoever. However, he did understand some very basic Romanian, and would respond to my limited use of Romanian language with increased eye contact, increased attentiveness, and some response to simple requests and commands. He would be comforted more easily by comforting phrases spoken in Romanian, followed by their English translation. This was very good, because at the time we got him, he was a disoriented, frightened, suffering child. He was sometimes very difficult to reach. Anything I could have done to help him, I would have done. When our son arrived, he was unaffectionate, unresponsive to pain, and prone to dozens of head-banging tantrums every day. He didn't know what books or pictures were, and didn't know himself in the mirror. He was afraid of everything and everyone. He was in pain from untreated chronic infections, and would undergo major surgeries and several invasive medical tests in his first 6 (Continued on page 17)
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