ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the specifics of psycho-educational issues of internationally adopted children ages four through eight and the two basic concepts: school readiness and remediation in the context of international adoption. Repetitive psychological traumatization along with educational deprivation and social/emotional neglect in early childhood mediates an adopted child’s development by creating distortions and impairments in all-important school-related capacities to form social relations, to advance cognitively and academically, and to behave within socially accepted norms. Proper understanding of the consequences of profound childhood trauma is a must in the successful rehabilitation and remediation of international adoptees. Within the last decade, international adoption has changed its qualitative and quantitative characteristics: special needs and “older” (adopted after their third birthday) children will constitute the largest percentage of children available for international adoption. One of the challenges faced by parents of internationally adopted preschool and elementary school-age children is their preparation for the formal school education. The SmartStart Toolbox Program responds to the question of what children need to master in order to become competent learners within the formal school context.
