Early Language Development in Children Adopted from Ethiopia

The number of children who are adopted internationally has been steadily increasing. However, there is a limited amount of research on how language typically develops in this population. This study followed 20 children under the age of 5 who were adopted from Ethiopia to North America. Longitudinal surveys, including the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MCDI; Fenson et al., 2007), were used to record their language progression at 3 month intervals post adoption. Results were compared to those of children adopted from China and to norms for non-adopted peers. Children who were adopted at a younger age (≤ 6 mos) showed similar language development patterns to their non-adopted peers. However, children who were adopted at an older age took longer than those adopted at a younger age to catch up to age norms. Ethiopian children who were adopted at a later age (≥12 mos) showed a much steeper growth curve in their expressive language than children who were adopted at a younger age. Children adopted from China showed similar patterns of language development. This information is important for clinicians and parents to understand the unique language development of their children and what it means for communication. INTRODUCTION Children who were adopted internationally have become a group that is more prevalent in our multicultural, globalized society and are often referred for speech-language assessment and intervention. Their linguistic development has been termed “second first language learning” (DeGeer, 1992; Pollock, 2005; Roberts, Pollock, Krakow, Price, Fulmer & Wang, 2005) to describe the experience where these children are removed from their first (or birth) language, which they have begun to acquire, and are completely immersed in a new second language that they must learn immediately in order to function in their new environment. The process of language attrition happens simultaneously with new linguistic growth. Second-first language learners share similarities with first language learners, as well as with second language learners. However, their language development may differ from that of non-adopted monolingual peers or second language learners (Geren et al., 2005). More research and information must be gathered in order to better understand the linguistic sequence of development and differentiate between typical and atypical development in second first language learners. This information will assist professionals working with children to identify who is in need of additional supports and services. There are many different reasons behind international adoption; Roby et al. (2006) found civil war, poverty and disease as the main factors behind inter-country African adoptions, a last resort for the children whose needs cannot be met otherwise. The endurance of the African identity, as well as the individual character of each country in which adoptions take place, should be maintained in international adoptions if possible. This would provide the adopted child with a potential connection to his or her roots, culturally and linguistically, and may support the development in their new home. The first (or birth) language is typically not fully developed at the time of adoption, and it is important to understand the impacts that this has on the learning of a second first language (Snedeker et al., 2007). In addition, children living in institutional settings prior to adoption may experience inadequate opportunities for social and language interaction, resulting in delays in their first language development (Glennen, 2002). This has important implications for speechlanguage pathologists, teachers, and other professionals that work with children who are adopted internationally, and are involved in determining who is in need of further assistance as these factors need to be considered during the assessment and evaluation process. It is important that all people involved in the care of these children understand the differences between a second first language learner, their monolingual peers, and bilingual language learners. Studies such as Kane (1993), Selman (2002), Lehland (2000) show an increase in intercountry adoption that has been occurring since the 1980s, with a sharp peak in 2004 (Selman 2009). However, since this time, international adoptions have declined. Previous studies of language development in children adopted internationally have primarily focused on children who have been adopted from China and Eastern Europe (Glennen & Masters, 2002; HwaFroelich et al., 2010; Krakow et al., 2005; Roberts et al., 2005; Snedeker et al., 2007; Tan & Yang, 2005). However, other countries have seen a sharp rise in adoptions while China and Eastern European adoptions have declined. In fact, Ethiopian adoptions experienced a dramatic increase from 2002 to 2010, and Ethiopia was one of the top 10 countries of origin for international adoptees during that time. This began even before Angelina Jolie adopted her daughter Zahara from Ethiopia in 2005, though the increasing trend was media-cized at this time. Within the United States, the number of Ethiopian adoptions has maintained the second highest in number since 2009, only below adoptions from China (U.S. Department of State, 2012). Within Canada, statistics are available only up to 2010 in which Ethiopia ranked fifth for the total number of adoptions which is down from third highest in 2008 and 2009 (Hilborn, n.d.). Ethiopia has provided a major source of children who are adopted to North America, and has been the second most frequent country of origin for adoptions to North America since 2009, with the number of adoptions from Ethiopia to the U.S. or Canada rising from under 400 in 2004 to over 2600 in 2010 (Hilborn, 2011; U.S. Department of State, 2012). In 2011, total number of Ethiopian adoptions began to show a decline, decreasing to 1732 in the United States. Canadian adoption statistics for 2011 are not yet available. Both countries are expected to show a dramatic decline in 2012 as Ethiopia is putting in place more restrictive international adoption policies which will make the process longer and more expensive. Ethiopia is a country that faces unrest and poverty. It is estimated that 39% of the population live below the poverty line, which is listed at less than $1.25USD per day (UNICEF). Nearly 5 million children in Ethiopia have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or other causes (Miller, Tseng, Tirella, Chan & Feig, 2008). Poverty in combination with death or illness of a parent or parents has been reported as the primary factor that influenced Ethiopian families to place their children for adoption (Reaper & Knox, 2009). Orphaned or relinquished children are placed in orphanages or foster homes, where the caregivertochildratios vary considerably, ranging from 1:3 to 1:15 (Reaper & Knox, 2009). Miller et al. (2008) investigated how the health and development of children adopted from Ethiopia differed from children adopted from other countries. As the number of adoptions from Ethiopia have increased over the past few years, it is important to understand the preadoption information that may affect the development of these children and how it may differ from other countries. The information was obtained from the International Adoption Clinic which included 50 children aged 3 months to 15 years. It was found that children from Ethiopia had near average head circumference, height, and weight which was higher than children from other countries such as Guatemala and China. No information on maternal health during pregnancy was available for any of the children. As well, birth dates for 5 of the children were re-assessed and assigned due to developmental, physical, growth and radiological assessments. Pomerleau et al. (2005), found that 4 variables predicted more positive cognitive and motor outcomes: weight to height ratios, head circumference measures, younger adoption ages, and absence of neurological symptoms. This appears to be a positive indicator for children who are adopted out of Ethiopia. Language Development in Children Adopted Internationally It is important to compare the language development of infants adopted internationally to toddlers adopted internationally in order to determine whether there are differences in their acquisition of English related to age at adoption. One such study focused on children adopted from China or Slavic-speaking countries (Snedeker, Geren & Shafto, 2012). Parental reports and speech samples were collected for one year. Unlike other studies, this study did not compare children who were adopted internationally to age-matched peers (Scott, Roberts & Glennen, 2011). It was found that social words and concrete nouns gave way to verbs, adjectives and function words as vocabulary increased in size. Sentence complexity logically increased as vocabulary grew, and more functors and adjectives were added into their lexicon. This pattern of development follows the same trend as non-adopted peers. The second-first language development of children adopted internationally has been the subject of several research studies in the past decade (see review by Scott, Roberts, & Glennen, 2011). Longitudinal studies of children adopted from Eastern Europe and China document relatively rapid acquisition of English vocabulary for most (e.g., Glennen & Masters, 2002; Pollock, 2005), and studies of preschoolers suggest that the vast majority have caught up to norms for non-adopted peers by two years post-adoption (e.g., Roberts et al., 2005). However, extensive variability has also been noted, and clearly some children adopted internationally struggle with language development and require support and intervention (Scott et al., 2011). The large number of children who have been adopted internationally has raised the question of the best way to assess these children to get the full understanding of their abilit