| The communicative and linguistic abilities of children adopted from Romanian orphanages were examined during unstructured and structured mother-child interactions, as well as mothers' use of language with the children was examined. Although Romanian orphanage children displayed more insecure attachment patterns, lower intelligence scores, and more behavioral problems, they did not differ from Canadian born children or children adopted from Romanian orphanages at an earlier age on the types of utterances used during interactions and overall syntactic skills. Mothers of Romanian orphanage children used more command utterances during unstructured interactions, suggesting increased regulation of children's activity. A multiple regression analysis indicated less securely attached patterns, lower intelligence, increased behavioral problems, and increased attention difficulties predicted the increased use of commands by mothers. The results of this study suggest that Romanian orphanage children, adopted into healthier environments, display relatively age-appropriate language abilities. |
