Sexual Development in Adopted Children

While sexual development follows much the same pattern for all children, there are some special issues that adopted children might face, including precocious puberty, the effects of childhood abuse or neglect on later sexual development, and questions about how the birds and bees applies to them. Our guest are Dr. Bradley Miller, a Pediatric Endocrinologist at the University of Minnesota and Joyce Maguire Pavao, a therapist specializing in adoption and an adjunct faculty member in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Early puberty, adopting older children, adopting from foster care, adopting from Russia, adopting from Ethiopia, adopting from Bulgaria, adopting from China, talking with children about sex, telling children about the birds and the bees