I totally agree. These are pretty normal coping behaviors for a kid whose been through a lot. She should have expected this.
I am intrested to see if anything happens to the woman. Maybe someone should send her to another country where they speak another language and see how she copes. (I know the kid went to his home country, but who knows how much language he retained after not using it for six months. My kids used to speak Swedish like natives, and six months after coming home they were pretty clueless.)