SmartStart: Home-Based Cognitive and Language Remediation
Program for Internationally Adopted Childr
Children of different ages adopted internationally are often "at
risk" educationally. Deprived of essential learning experiences
in orphanages, children are indeed disadvantaged and may have
cognitive and language problems moving to more advanced levels
of learning after adoption. What can be done to put these
children on a fast track to catch up with their peers? The
answer in many cases is an early, well-planned, focused, and
systematic cognitive and language remediation at school, in the
community, and at home.
The SmartStart program, created for children ages 3 to 8 by an
educational psychologist Dr. Carol Lidz (
www.bgcenterschool.org/Instructors/CarolLidz.shtml)
with participation of Dr. Boris Gindis (www.bgcenter.com/d
rGindis.htm), is a useful tool for any family with young
children. It offers traditional family activities and games,
which parents are invited to make more meaningful and remedial
for their children without taking the fun out. These activities
are not randomly picked; they are selected to reflect what is
currently known about best practices in promoting cognitive and
social development of young children.
What makes this program unique is that it bears in mind the
specificity of international adoptees and introduces basic
cognitive concepts and skills that might not have been formed in
the adopted child's earlier development. It systematically
stimulates academic language development and at the same time,
it promotes attachment by providing parents and children with
shared enjoyable activities. The SmartStart program stresses the
utmost importance of adult mediation, missed in the early stages
of an adopted child's learning. The prominent feature of each
unit is a vocabulary section: which words to introduce and how
to explain an activity to the child in order to make it more
remedially meaningful. For international adoptees, learning
their new language is a major adjustment activity. They learn
English and the American lifestyle as a by-product of everyday
interactions with their adoptive parents. Based on that, the
SmartStart gives adoptive parents a large set of activities and
provides the language that mediates these activities.
Unit 1: Introduction. The explanation of specificity of
cognitive remediation in internationally adopted child.
Unit 2: Noticing our world. The goal of this unit is to
teach the child how to look and what to notice; develop a
vocabulary to share our experiences; detect pattern and make
groups based on a shared characteristic. Example: With crayons
and paper, encourage your child to fill the whole page with
different patterns (i.e., a row of circles then a row of
crosses). Repeat these rows in a different pattern. Create
patterns within a row. Model the making of a "pattern page" for
your child.
Unit 3: Let's make a plan. The goal of this unit is to
teach the child systematically explore and organize, think ahead
about the desired result and plan steps to reach it. Example:
Suggest that your child invites a friend over to play. Help your
child think through the toys and how to get them ready, and what
might be a good snack to have with the friend. Afterwards, talk
with her about how it went: what the friend seemed to enjoy the
most, what could have gone better, what to think about next
time.
Unit 4: That's fantastic! The goal of this unit is to
teach the child differentiate between real and imagined, develop
hypothetical thinking and think of alternatives. Example:
Encourage your child to play thematic games with toys and
household objects: "In the airport", "In a supermarket", "At
school", etc., imagining being a pilot, doctor, or teacher and
transforming toys into the necessary props. Take the role of
someone who is interested, watching, and describing, but not
directing. Encourage him to interact with the toys and just add
enough to help the flow of action or conversation. If he wants
you to take a more active part, encourage him to be "the
director" and follow his lead.
Unit 5: The nimble symbol. The goal of this unit is to
develop the ability to create symbols and use them and to
develop positive attitude and readiness for literacy. Example:
Suggest a "measuring game" to your child. The aim is to find all
the different ways something can be measured. Give an example,
such as "See this table? I can measure it with my hands. Let's
see how many hands long it is! Now, I think I'll measure it with
this pencil. Let's see how many pencils it is!" Then ask your
child to pick something to use for measuring, and, once done, to
think of another way to measure the same thing.
Unit 6: What's the big idea? The goal of this unit is to
teach the child to get the main idea from listening and learn to
appreciate, apply, and make up rules and general principles.
Example: Make up your own games with rules, for example, a ball
game: decide how long to hold the ball, who can throw to whom,
or a different way to move the ball (for example, with your
hands, with your feet, with your nose, with your knee...).
Unit 7: Who is in charge? The goal of this unit is to
teach the child to control movements and learn to control
attention and feelings. Example: Tell your child, "This is a
special kind of ball game. We're going to sit on the floor and
roll this ball. We'll try to hit one of those toys with the
ball. But, FIRST, you have to say which toy you are going to
touch. THEN you roll the ball and try to hit it. Watch me do it
first."
Unit 8: Making connections: understanding the past,
facilitating the future. The goal of this unit is to help
the child to build awareness of new culture and new family and
develop cause and effect relationships. Example: Let your child
know that the ancestors of most people in this country used to
live somewhere else. Make it interesting and fun to think about
where all the different people came from, especially your own
family. As educators and adoptive parents, we have learned that
love and good nutrition are not enough to accelerate cognitive
development and promote thinking, learning, and literacy in
children who had been victims of deprivation, neglect, and
institutionalization. The SmartStart program, available as on
online class and as a CD at www.bgcenterschool.org, is your essential aid in the remediation of
internationally adopted children.