Language adjustment in international adoptions: An exploratory study

Abstract

Abstract The process of linguistic adaptation of foreign children who are adopted by families with a totally different mother tongue is bound to be a very peculiar one. This paper gives a survey of the existing (scarce) literature dealing with this problem. In addition, we conducted an investigation concerning foreign children adopted into Dutch‐speaking families. Enquiries concerning this process were made by means of a questionnaire sent to the parents of 118 children born in India and adopted by Dutch‐speaking families in Belgium. On the basis of these data, an attempt is made to formulate answers to two questions: 1. How, on average, does linguistic adaptation progress, and what may parents be led to expect? 2. Is this group of children a risk group with regard to lasting language problems which could eventually result in learning problems? On the basis of the accumulated data it is possible to form a picture of the adaptation process, which falls into a short, early period and a further acquisition process. Children who are younger than three years upon their arrival appear to deal with both periods differently from children who are older on their arrival. The answer to the second question must be formulated differently for each of these two groups. Striking for the entire group is the increased occurrence of various ear conditions. As is well‐known, any hearing problem is a risk factor in language acquisition.