Chapter 3. Language development during the preschool years

This chapter focuses on the speech and language development of the first years post-adoption, of children adopted internationally as infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The attrition or loss of their birth language, the pattern of acquisition of the new home language, and the rate of learning the new language are discussed in terms of their theoretical and clinical interest. The chapter focuses on what is known about the language acquisition of the children across the components of language; pragmatics, phonology, semantics, and morpho-syntax. A table provides a summary of existing studies and the specific measures used within each study as a function of the components of language.