title: Oral and written language development of children adopted from china.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The sharp increase in the number of international adoptions in the United States has prompted a heightened interest in the language development of internationally adopted children. Although recent studies have investigated the early language development of adoptees, little is known about the school-age language and literacy skills of internationally adopted children. The focus of this study was the oral and written language skills of school-age adoptees from China.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants were 24 children between the ages of 7;0 (years;months) and 8;8. Oral and written language skills were assessed using standardized measures and a narrative retell task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As a group, the majority of children exhibited scores in the average to above average range for all oral and written standardized language measures. Narrative analysis indicated that an increase in the number of grammatical errors was moderately correlated with lower reading comprehension scores. Age at adoption was negatively correlated with several measures, including a narrative measure of grammatical errors per T-unit.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings provide an encouraging outlook on the oral and written language outcomes of internationally adopted children from China through the early elementary grades. Moreover, these findings support earlier research that speaks to the resiliency and robustness of language acquisition abilities in children.
authors.affiliation: Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. kathleen.scott@hofstra.edu
authors.forename: Kathleen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Jenny A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Rena
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Krakow
mesh_terms: D000300:Adoption; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D032882:Comprehension; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014481:United States; D014956:Writing