Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T01:08:42.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language and memory abilities of internationally adopted children from China: evidence for early age effects*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2013

AUDREY DELCENSERIE  and
FRED GENESEE
AUDREY DELCENSERIE*
Affiliation:
McGill University
FRED GENESEE
Affiliation:
McGill University
*
Address for correspondence: Audrey Delcenserie, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Stewart Biology Building, 1205 Dr Penfield Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1B1. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to examine if internationally adopted (IA) children from China (M = 10;8) adopted by French-speaking families exhibit lags in verbal memory in addition to lags in verbal abilities documented in previous studies (Gauthier & Genesee, 2011). Tests assessing verbal and non-verbal memory, language, non-verbal cognitive ability, and socio-emotional development were administered to thirty adoptees. Their results were compared to those of thirty non-adopted monolingual French-speaking children matched on age, gender, and socioeconomic status. The IA children scored significantly lower than the controls on language, verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and verbal long-term memory. No group differences were found on non-verbal memory, non-verbal cognitive ability, and socio-emotional development, suggesting language-specific difficulties. Despite extended exposure to French, adoptees may experience language difficulties due to limitations in verbal memory, possibly as a result of their delayed exposure to that language and/or attrition of the birth language.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 41 , Issue 6 , November 2014 , pp. 1195 - 1223
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

The authors would like to thank Dr Kenneth Hyltenstam (Stockholm University) and Dr Erika Hoff (Florida Atlantic University) for their assistance in designing this study.

References

REFERENCES

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4–18 and 1991 Profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Adams, A.-M. & Gathercole, S. E. (1995). Phonological working memory and speech production in preschool children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 38, 403–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Adams, A.-M. & Gathercole, S. E. (1996). Phonological working memory and spoken language development in young children. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 49, 216–33.Google Scholar
Alloway, T. P. & Gathercole, S. E. (2005). The role of sentence recall in reading and language skills of children with learning difficulties. Learning and Individual Differences 15, 271–82.Google Scholar
Archibald, L. M. D. & Gathercole, S. E. (2006). Short-term and working memory in specific language impairment. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 41, 675–93.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4, 417–23.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D., Gathercole, S. E. & Papagno, C. (1998). The phonological loop as a language learning device. Psychological Review 105, 158–73.Google Scholar
Bishop, D. V. (1983). Test for Reception of Grammar. Manchester: D. V. Bishop.Google Scholar
Bishop, D. V., Bishop, S. J., Bright, P., James, C., Delaney, T. & Tallal, P. (1999). Different origin of auditory and phonological processing problems in children with language impairment: evidence from a twin study. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42, 155–68.Google Scholar
Brownell, R. (2000). Manual for Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test. Novato, CA: Academic Therapy Publications.Google Scholar
Chiat, S. & Roy, P. (2008). Early phonological and sociocognitive skills as predictors of later language and social communication outcomes. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 49, 635–45.Google Scholar
Cohen, M. J. (2001). CMS – Échelle Clinique de Mémoire pour Enfants. Paris: Éditions du Centre de Psychologie Appliquée.Google Scholar
Cohen, N. J., Lojkasek, M., Zadeh, Z. Y., Pugliese, M. & Kiefer, H. (2008). Children adopted from China: a prospective study of their growth and development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 49, 458–68.Google Scholar
Conners, K. (2001). Conners' Continuous Performance Test Computer Program [computer software]. West Sussex: International Psychology Services.Google Scholar
Daneman, M. & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 19, 450–66.Google Scholar
Daneman, M. & Green, I. (1986). Individual differences in comprehending and producing words in context. Journal of Memory and Language 25, 1–18.Google Scholar
DeGeer, B. (1992). Internationally adopted children in communication: a developmental study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Lund University.Google Scholar
Delcenserie, A., Genesee, F. & Gauthier, K. (2013). Language abilities of internationally-adopted children from China: evidence for early age effects? Applied Psycholinguistics 34, 541–68.Google Scholar
Dufva, M., Niemi, P. & Voeten, M. J. M. (2001). The role of phonological memory, word recognition, and comprehension skills in reading development: from preschool to grade 2. Reading and Writing 14, 91–117.Google Scholar
Dunn, L. M., Theriault-Whalen, C. M. & Dunn, L. M. (1993). Manual for échelle de vocabulaire en images Peabody. Toronto, ON: Psycan Corporation.Google Scholar
Eigsti, I.-M., Weitzman, C., Schuh, J., De Marchena, A. & Casey, B. J. (2011). Language and cognitive outcomes in internationally adopted children. Development and Psychopathology 23, 629–46.Google Scholar
Fernald, A., Perfors, A. & Marchman, V. A. (2006). Picking up speed in understanding: speech processing efficiency and vocabulary growth across the 2nd year. Developmental Psychology 42, 98–116.Google Scholar
French, L. M. & O'Brien, I. (2008). Phonological memory and children's second language grammar learning. Applied Psycholinguistics 29, 463–87.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E. & Adams, A.-M. (1993). Phonological working memory in very young children. Developmental Psychology 29, 770–78.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Alloway, T. P., Willis, C. S. & Adams, A. M. (2006). Working memory in children with reading disabilities. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 93, 265–81.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Brown, L. & Pickering, S. J. (2003). Working memory assessments at school entry as longitudinal predictors of National Curriculum attainment levels. Educational and Child Psychology 20, 109–22.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Willis, C., Emslie, H. & Baddeley, A. D. (1991). The influences of number of syllables and wordlikeness on children's repetition of nonwords. Applied Psycholinguistics 12, 349–67.Google Scholar
Gauthier, K. & Genesee, F. (2011). Language development in internationally adopted children: a special case of early second language learning. Child Development 82, 887–901.Google Scholar
Glennen, S. (2007). Predicting language outcomes for internationally adopted children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 50, 529–48.Google Scholar
Glennen, S. & Bright, B. J. (2005). Five years later: language in school-age internationally adopted children. Seminars in Speech and Language 26, 86–101.Google Scholar
Grant, J., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Berthoud, I. & Christophe, A. (1996). Is the language of people with Williams syndrome mere mimicry? Phonological short-term memory in a foreign language use. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive 6, 615–28.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez-Clellen, V., Calderon, J. & Weismer, S. E. (2004). Verbal working memory in bilingual children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 47, 863–76.Google Scholar
Harrington, M. W. & Sawyer, M. (1992). L2 working memory capacity and L2 reading skills. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 14, 25–38.Google Scholar
Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental Review 26, 55–88.Google Scholar
Hostinar, C. E., Stellern, S. A., Schaefer, C., Carlson, S. M. & Gunnar, M. R. (2012). Associations between early life adversity and executive function in children adopted internationally from orphanages. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 109, 17208–12.Google Scholar
Johnson, K., Banghan, H. & Liyao, W. (1998). Infant abandonment and adoption in China. Population and Development Review 24, 469–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinstein, R. N., Jones, L. A., Hullett, S., Kwon, S., Lee, R. J., Friedman, N. E., Manny, R. E., Mutti, D. O., Yu, J. A. & Zadnik, K. (2003). Refractice error and ethnicity in children. Archives of Ophtalmology 121, 1141–47.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. (2000). A new view of language acquisition. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 97, 11850–57.Google Scholar
Lecocq, P. (1996). Épreuve de compréhension syntaxico-sémantique. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.Google Scholar
Lindblad, F., Ringbäck Weitoft, G. & Hjern, A. (2010). ADHD in internal adoptees: a national cohort study. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 19, 37–44.Google Scholar
Marchman, V. A. & Fernald, A. (2008). Speech of word recognition and vocabulary knowledge in infancy predict cognitive and language outcomes in later childhood. Developmental Science 11, 9–16.Google Scholar
Masoura, E. V. & Gathercole, S. E. (1999). Phonological short-term memory and foreign vocabulary learning. International Journal of Psychology 34, 383–88.Google Scholar
Masoura, E. V. & Gathercole, S. E. (2005). Phonological short-term memory skills and new word learning in young Greek children. Memory 13, 422–29.Google Scholar
Moll, K., Hulme, C., Nag, S. & Snowling, M. J. (2013). Sentence repetition as a marker of language skills in children with dyslexia. Applied Psycholinguistics. Advance online publication. doi://http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0142716413000209.Google Scholar
Moody, M., Schwartz, R., Gravel, J. & Ruben, R. (1999). Speech perception and verbal memory in children with and without histories of otitis media. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42, 1069–79.Google Scholar
Pickering, S. J. & Gathercole, S. E. (2001). Working Memory Test Battery for Children. London: Pearson Assessment.Google Scholar
Pomerleau, A., Malcuit, G., Chicoine, J.-F., Séguin, R., Belhumeur, C., Germain, P., Amyot, I. & Jéliu, G. (2005). Health status, cognitive and motor development of young children adopted from China, East Asia, and Russia across the first 6 months after adoption. International Journal of Behavioral Development 29, 445–57.Google Scholar
Potter, M. C. & Lombardi, L. (1998). Syntactic priming in immediate recall of sentences. Journal of Memory & Language 38, 265–82.Google Scholar
Rescorla, L. (2002). Language and reading outcomes to age 9 in late-talking toddlers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 45, 360–71.Google Scholar
Roberts, J., Pollock, K., Krakow, R., Price, J., Fulmer, K. & Wang, P. (2005). Language development in preschool-age children adopted from China. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48, 93–107.Google Scholar
Scott, K. A. (2009). Language outcomes of school-age internationally-adopted children: a systematic review of the literature. Topics in Language Disorders 29, 65–81.Google Scholar
Scott, K. A., Roberts, J. & Krakow, R. (2008). Oral and written language development of children adopted from China. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 17, 150–60.Google Scholar
Semel, E., Wiig, E. & Secord, W. A. (2003). Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 4th ed.Toronto: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Semel, E., Wiig, E. & Secord, W. A. (2009). Évaluation Clinique des Notions Langagières Fondamentales – Version pour Francophones du Canada. Toronto: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
StClair-Thompson, H. L. & Gathercole, S. E. (2006). Executive functions and achievements on national curriculum tests: shifting, updating, inhibition, and working memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59, 745–59.Google Scholar
Tan, T. X. & Marfo, K. (2006). Parental ratings of behavioral adjustment in two samples of adopted Chinese girls: age-related versus socio-emotional correlates and predictors. Applied Developmental Psychology 27, 14–30.Google Scholar
Thorn, A. S. C. & Gathercole, S. E. (1999). Language-specific knowledge and short-term memory in bilingual and non-bilingual children. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 52, 303–24.Google Scholar
Vejnovic, D., Milin, P. & Zdravkovic, S. (2010). Effects of proficiency and age of language acquisition on working memory performance in bilinguals. Psihologija 43, 219–32.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. & Naglieri, J. (2006). Wechsler Non-Verbal Scale of Ability. Toronto: Harcourt Assessment.Google Scholar
Weismer, S. E. & Thordardottir, E. (2002). Cognition and language. In Accardo, P., Capute, A. & Rogers, B. (eds.), Disorders of language development, 21–37. Timonium, MD: York Press, Inc.Google Scholar
Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. (1999). Influences on infant speech processing: toward a new synthesis. Annual Review of Psychology 50, 509–35.Google Scholar