Orphanages and Speech Development

My brother was adopted from the Philippines when he was 2 years and 9 months old, meaning he lived in an orphanage for that long. He did not speak English before he came here, but within a few weeks he spoke very clearly. He picked up the language and had a broader vocabulary at the age of 4 than many of my friends at the age of 14. Studies have shown that being raised for the first few developmental years of your life can directly inhibit your communication. Now that he is 9, my brother is having trouble in math. He has never had trouble in English or grammar, even though he was not born in a predominantly English-speaking country. His English has always been wonderful, but the problem has always been math. We have had him tested several times, and the first time they decided that he had an audio-processing disorder. We put him in a therapy program to help with this, but his math skills did not improve. He was tested again and has now been diagnosed with a visual-processing disorder. They tell us that both of these disorders are more common among children from orphanages, but I am skeptical now that they have given two unrelated conditions to explain his math skills, or lack thereof I should say. Do you think that he could have both conditions and immaculate English? Could he have learned an entire language by hearing and still have an audio-processing disorder? And if so, what role do you think an orphanage might play in these disorders?