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Adoption Issues
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The Neurological Issues of Adopted
Children
Neurological findings are
common among adopted children, and they may reflect
inherited learning disabilities, prenatal substance
exposure, prematurity (up to one-half of Eastern
Europe adoptions), or the consequences of early
life institutionalization.
Studies of adopted children in
the U.S. often show a dramatic catch-up in cognitive
performance after living with their adoptive
families, although for many reasons (many described
below), school achievement may lag tests of
cognitive aptitude like IQ.
Common
Neurological Issues in Adopted Children
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Visual
Perceptual Problems (Up to 1/3)
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Other Visual
Problems - Eye or Eye Coordination
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Auditory
Processing
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Language
Processing
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Gross and Fine
Motor Impairment
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Memory and
Attention Problems
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Sensory
Sensitivities and Behaviors
Many
children adopted overseas had significant deprivation
histories - including malnutrition, reduced one-on-one
social contact, and often severely restricted movement
and exploratory play. Because the brain's sensory and
motor systems organize themselves by a child's
exploration of the environment, young children may be
significantly disadvantaged with activities that require
coordination of sight, sound, spatial localization, and
balance.
A Careful Search for
Neurologic Causes
Often the causes of
an adopted child's learning difficulty are hard to
identify specifically because she may not know what
others see or hear (she has nothing to compare to), and
many of the sensory overload problems are difficult to
put into words.
Because adopted children often have CNS or brain-based
processing disorders, they are often more difficult to
recognize than more common disorders of the eyes, ears,
or touch sensation. Often parents or professionals begin
to notice patterns of difficulties - unusual writing
errors or recognition problems - or failure to progress
with certain tasks like reading - that bring them to a
neurologist or neuropsychologist.
Educational Strategies Built on
Strengths
If an
adopted child begins to struggle in school, it is often
vitally important to find out her preferred routes of
memory and correct visual or auditory perceptual
problems. For visual perceptual problems, this often
means using words and kinesthetic strategies to correct
errors of spatial orientation. Letters and words may be
the first early challenge, but later social exchanges,
higher order language, note-taking, and mathematics may
require special teaching techniques.
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