I would like to ask some assistance on behalf of a friend. She adopted a child from foster care and there appear to be some discrepancies regarding her actual age. Please read the message below and offer any suggestions or comments.
Sam
The first moment I met her I questioned her age as she 'appeared' physically older than 5 yrs old.
She is supposed to turn 8 next week and recently had some dental work done with a dental specialist who said her teeth and bone development was more like 9-10. Her second molars are just under the surface. This dentist obtained the dental records from the dentist the foster parents took her to at the supposed age of 4 and she had her 6 yr old molars at the time.
Some experts are suggesting we put M on medication to delay the onset of puberty as she is definitely is developing. I have made her ready and her reaction to the information was odd and very accepting of what she might soon expect. She is in Jr clothing....
Her MAJOR problem at this time is Social and because she is attending Day Treatment her class mates are all 6-7-8 and her social issues appear to be frustration with other children who do not want to play the way she does.
Her Math skills are amazing and include fractions and multiplication and she has had no problem learning to measure for cooking, can tell time on both kinds of clocks.
She gave up all interest in dolls including Barbies over a year ago and would rather listen to the Radio...She wants an IPod for her Birthday, and is able to write down the phone number for Radio Disney and Make the Call, stay on hold and request songs by title and artist!
No One who has met her Believes she is turning 8 including Grandma's who have also always questioned her age.
It is NOT just her behavior that seems older it is her physical body that is older.... I would expect some "grown Up" behaviors given her history and RAD because this is often one of the issues we face....but, the physical issues are really the red flag her age is incorrect.
She does NOT have an original birth certificate. The records we have state her age was determined by birth mom saying she was born in the woods (we have the locations) in 1998 and it was snowing...The state looked at the weather reports for 1998 and determined that the only time it snowed in that place that year was the first 2-weeks of Feb so her Birthday was selected as Feb 1.