Like many adoptive parents, I worry from time to time whether the poor pre-natal care and early nutrition that my kids received in Russia might have affected their brain development. I worry about whether impaired brain development might hamper their performance in school and restrict them in later life.

Maybe now I can stop worrying so much.

Today's New York Times carried a front page story about two astounding... more

As you might have guessed from my previous two posts on the work of Professors Robert McCall and Christina Groark, I find the work being done at St. Petersburg's orphanages by these University of Pittsburgh professors fascinating.

They've quantified the basic environment in many Russian orphanages and then they set out to see what changes were possible... more

The other day, I told you about how two professors from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education came to be involved with Russia's orphanages. Now, I'd like to tell you what they have achieved through their work.

Their goals were two-fold: make care more consistent and more responsive. They had found that the average child in a Russian baby home could expect to encounter as many as 100 caregivers during his or her time there. Most of... more

Fifteen years ago, two professors from the University of Pittsburgh were invited to go to Russia by city government officials in St. Petersburg. The Soviet Union had dissolved, and with it, a lot of government support for child welfare initiatives. What policies, what services should we put in place, the city fathers asked the academics?

But while Robert McCall and Christina Groark, respectively a professor... more

Way back in January, my colleague Tana over at the LDS Adoption Blog put up an excellent three-part post on the importance of early developmental assessments for adopted children. I bookmarked it when she put it up and kept meaning to get back to it.

Tana lays out in great detail how a good assessment should work, and I wished I had had this information before I embarked on my efforts to have my older... more