Adopted Children

Impacts of adoption

Disconnection from one’s natural mother can have a profound impact on sensory processing, emotional maturity and the capacity to reach one’s potential. As a result many adopted children have separation anxiety and are unable to express their feelings. Auditory processing disorders can be caused by such a significant dislocation early in life. High levels of anxiety in adopted children are common and can significantly undermine the capacity to listen, communicate and interact.

In the case of adopted overseas orphans, the impact of the early childhood can have an even more significant impact on their auditory processing and life performance. Children from non-English speaking backgrounds may not have acquired all of the English phonemes in their brain because they were not exposed to English early enough. To read English proficiently you must also understand the grammatical rules of spoken English. This can be challenging for children from non-English backgrounds. Some overseas adopted children prosper without auditory processing or language processing deficits.

We see many adopted children with poor auditory processing who are unable to reach their potential.

Many of these children are extremely anxious, emotionally immature which further undermines their performance. Some adopted children exhibit significant learning difficulties while others who are highly intelligent manage above-average grades, but significantly underperform.

Adopted children often look around the class for cues and clues as to what they are supposed to be doing. This is because poor auditory processing and anxiety depresses auditory attention and comprehension. These deficits can cause the classroom experience to engulf the student with more information than they can process. Auditory deficits can compromise a child’s ability to interact with peers or to freely express themselves.

How we can help stress and anxiety

Our gentle integrated sensory programs are designed to help normalise the academic and life performance for adopted children who are under-performing. Our experience suggests that the programs have the most significant potential to deliver life changing improvements for overseas adopted children.

What else may help?

• Remedial massage
• Breathing exercises
• Introduce a balanced, fresh and varied diet
• Identify appropriate dietary supplements
• Investigate digestion