Embracing Children Humanitarian Organization

ARTICLES of INTEREST
Adopted Children Face Unique Challenges

ECHO's purpose is to save orphaned children from institutions by providing grants to adoptive parents to assist with the high costs associated with adoption.

Many more orphans would be adopted if parents did not have to worry about how they were going to pay for the $10,000-$25,000 fees.

Please help us help these children by donating to ECHO.

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Article reprinted with written permission from Peggy Small Porter.
First published in The Seacost Newspapers.

With international adoptions on the rise in this country, many new parents of adopted infants and toddlers are facing many of the same issues as all parents face. They are also learning that they and their children may have some unique challenges.

Very little valid data exists on the long-term health and well being of children who have been adopted from institutions. What is known, based on the thousands of international adoptions over the past few years, is that a large percentage of children adopted from orphanages exhibit some form of developmental delay.

Many of the institutions in which children are placed offer less than adequate care, which results in a variety of physical, cognitive, social and/or emotional problems. A variety of factors contribute to the risks of developmental problems including poor medical and nutritional care and the lack of a strong bonding and attachment with a primary caregiver during critical formative years.

The good news is that adopted children will progress far better in their new home than in the orphanage, and most children make tremendous gains in growth and development during the first years with their adoptive families. Many of the problems are simply environmental adaptations that go away when the environment is changed.

Limited studies have shown a correlation between the length of time a child spends in an institution and the severity of their delays. The less time a child has been in an orphanage, the greater improvement they tend to show over time compared to children who are adopted at a later age.

This finding is right in line with the results we see in early intervention therapies. When children receive the appropriate therapies at an early age, their progress is more rapid and effective.

Some of the more common issues in internationally adopted children include the following:

Social-emotional issues — Adopted children can seem to be somewhat overwhelmed by other children, and tend to withdraw or avoid them. This may seem surprising for children who have lived most or all of their lives in groups with other children. Some researchers attribute this behavior to the belief that in orphanages, children in cribs seldom attempted to interact with the child in the crib next to theirs, because the other child would usually not respond.

Medical issues — Institutionalized children are typically much smaller than their peers due to a variety of factors including lack of prenatal care and malnourishment. A vast majority also reports to have or have had at least one medical problem.

Feeding issues — The most common eating problems reported are refusal of solid food and eating too much. Many institutionalized children have to learn when to stop eating. Before being adopted, most had never eaten enough to know what it felt like to be full. Refusal to chew is another difficulty directly related to orphanage conditions. Many institutionalized children are not given solid foods until well into their second year, and as a result have not learned how to chew.

Physical issues — Most infants will rock back and forth on their hands and knees in preparation for first starting to crawl. Children in orphanages will engage in this rocking, but then had nowhere to move beyond the length of their cribs. The rocking would continue as a habit when there was no opportunity to crawl. Some researchers theorize that habits like rocking could be attempts by institutionalized children to stimulate or soothe themselves in an environment that provided little or no stimulation or comfort.

What parents can do: One of the most important things parents of internationally adopted children can do is to get connected. Having support and access to a network of specialists can provide parents with much needed validation and assistance. Providing the appropriate type and amount of stimulation for your child will differ for each child. Some institutionalized children cannot bear to be touched or hugged right away. Sometimes a room full of fun toys is overwhelming. Parents eager to make up for all that their child has missed while living in an orphanage need to practice patience while the child acclimates to their new and different world. Read your child’s cues and provide a wide range of developmental play activities, which emphasize parent-child involvement. This will help your child feel connected to a person as opposed to feeling alone and isolated. Gently stimulate all your child’s senses by using toys with different textures, colors, noises and music.

As the adoptive home provides gradual and increased stimulation, and as the child develops ways of letting his or her needs be known to a responsive parent, troubling types of behaviours naturally decrease and the parents and children learn to engage in a healthy and loving manner.

Peggy Small-Porter is the executive director at the
Richie McFarland Children’s Center in Stratham.