[MenloAve]

We just got back from meeting our daughter who is 3.3 years old. She was neglected for the first two years at home before arriving in the orphanage. When she arrived she made no sounds. She has had intensive physical therapy and caught up to her age group in gross and fine motor skills. She is verbally somewhere between a 18 months and 24 months age on verbal language with no speech therapy while at the orphanage. There is a concern about her cognitive ability due to the speech delay and her small size (head -though she is just small). When she came to the orphanage she was also exhibiting signs of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Whenever she is nervous she "dissapears". We were able to attach though it took awhile and we saw a very happy child that is trully a sponge and very interested in learning.

I'm curious if anyone else adopted a toddler with similar speech delays and what you did to support their transition to English. What was the ultimate outcome and what things do I need to be watchful for?

Any experience with Post Traumatic Stress in Toddlers would also be helpful.

Thank you

[socialkat78]

You could start by contacting your local school district and seeing if they have an SLP (speech language pathologist) that works with their school. There may be an early intervention program that you could access that would assist with this area. Good luck!

[mschaefer]

Menlo, feel free to contact me directly as we too adopted from Poland last year. Our twin daughters were 25 months at the time of our meeting and 27 months when we reach the us. E had gross motor delays even though she had been discharged from PT at the orphanage (I picked up on them quickly as I am a PT by profession). M also was not receiving any help at the orphanage but was not talking in Polish. She did follow basic directions but at 2 y.o. she did not have any words. We used lots of basic sign language, basic Polish words in combination with the English. She also had the advantage and comfort of her sister E during the transition.

1 year later she is still getting speech therapy (please do not let your district tell you they can't test her right away because she is getting used to English -- if she has a delay in Polish, she WILL have a delay in English). M is coming along great, but still not age appropriate. She is a regular chatterbox now, but we often don't know what she is saying which is a source of frustration for both M and us. E is a chatterbox but her English and residual Polish are both crystal clear and her English is beyond age appropriate

Our girls spent their first 2 years of life in the orphanage and while not specifically identified with post-traumatic stress, they both have gone through post-institutional behavior. The behaviour has changed and they both seem very bonded (I nearly jumped for joy when they cried at the first day of preschool, 10 months after arriving home -- they would not have cried the first few months home).

I'd be happy to answer any specific questions.