Citation

Dalen M, Theie S. Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 2014; 84(4): 397-408.

Affiliation

Department of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, American Orthopsychiatric Association, Publisher Wiley Blackwell)

DOI

10.1037/ort0000010

PMID

24999525

Abstract

In this study, we compare internationally adopted children's communication, gross motor development, temperament, and challenging behavior with the same characteristics in nonadopted children at age 24 and 36 months. At 24 months, adopted children lag behind in communication and in gross motor development. The adopted children are less active and show less physically challenging behavior. At age 36 months, most of these differences have diminished, but the adopted children still lag behind in communication. This is an important finding because communication skills in the toddler years are a crucial factor in children's attachment, social development, and later language and cognitive development. Looking at the overall outcomes during early toddler years, internationally adopted children are developing very well considering the preadoption adversity to which many of them have been exposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en