INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION STUDY

We are currently conducting a study to look at how adopted children process sounds from languages that they heard during their early years. Our area of interest is whether adopted children show residual effects of their birth language on their perception of language at later ages. Our study centers around children adopted from the South Asian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal).

We would like to invite adopted children from the South Asian subcontinent between 8 and 14 years of age to participate in this study. The study involves listening to pairs of sounds over a set of headphones, such as 'pa' and 'ba', and simply deciding whether the sounds appear the same or different. Parents can stay with their children during the entire visit. Visits take between 30 and 40 minutes and will take place at the Boston University Infant Language Laboratory. This is a one-time session only. Participants will be paid $40 for their time and will receive the results of our study once it is published. Parking will be provided at no cost at Boston University.

We would also like to invite monolingual non-adopted children in the same age range to participate. If you would like to inquire further about the study, please contact Prof. Leher Singh (leher@bu.edu) or Prof. Jonathan Barnes (jabarnes@bu.edu) by email or by telephone (617) 353 7491. If you and your child would like to participate, simply email us or fill out a form at www.bu.edu/babies/participate or call (617) 358 1395.