I’m following up my first post on this subject because there is more I wanted to tell you about the transition in languages and how we helped Livi. We changed our daughter’s name. If she had been much older we don’t know that we would had changed it at all. We felt she was young enough at 16 months old to handle the change. I had my heart set on a certain name so we decided to change it. On our visits during trip one we called her by her birth name. It was shortened to a nickname by the Orphanage staff and we called her by that name. On trip two we called her by her birth name and added her new name. So every time we talked to her it went like this for example- “Good morning Svetlana-Marie”.

We kept it that way for about 3-4 weeks and then dropped her birth name. Another couple that adopted a toddler from the same baby home began using his new name right away. They did not speak any Russian to him either. I have heard that he has also adjusted well. It’s hard to say if our tactics worked. I like to think that learning her language was helpful.I also began signing with her as soon as we got home. I attribute so much to signing. Dk publishing makes this great touch and feel my first words flash cards. We would say, sign and touch the word. I would read, sing, talk to livi constantly.

I always labeled things she pointed to. Signing really helped livi and she took to it quickly. Slowly she started talking. She is right on target for her age. Last month her language took off and she began speaking in sentences and repeating everything. She prefers to only sign certain words like milk, please and thank you. I think that reading and signing were the most important things we did to encourage a smooth transition. So if your adopting from another country or already have did you learn some of the language? Did you change your childs name? How did that go?