Effects of Early Deprivation on the Development of Institutionalised Children

The foster care is known to be the current system to manage social issues related to the child neglect and abuse. It grew out of a system being used by every class and due to certain economic conditions. The officials designated as considering poor had authority to indenture children from poor families than the providence of relief. Besides indenture by government officials, children were formally placed with other family to learn trade. The relationship indenture was based on expectations and economic aspects to provide formal education along with emotional and psychological needs. It appears logical that the system is required to attend the possible effects of foster care on children (Minnis, et al., 2001). Over the years, researchers outside the system have conducted different studies related to the foster care that provided mixed information. ===== concluded that the initial process of separation of children from their parents is considered as catastrophic or unpleasant. The initial parting is found to be dramatic and frightening for children being inappropriately prepared. Older children report their relief upon separation from their parents due to conflicts in home and they were often found to be sad. Such sort of experiences among children regardless

He coined the term “maternal deprivation” and defined it as a child not having this vital mother-hild relationship and he believed that without this interaction there could be severe damage to the child’s personality, and their emotional and social development (p. 148) . Many children, especially in orphanages with a high volume of children, were maternally deprived in the early establishment of

An adult’s psychological development depends on one’s childhood experiences with adults and their capability of providing nurturance, protection, trust, and security to the developing child. Children with current and previous ties to the foster care system were found to have behavioral, emotional, and social well-being issues. The United States averages more than 400,000 children in foster care during the year. Amongst these 400,000 children, as many as 50% have developmental disorders or psychiatric diagnoses (Hutchinson). Children placed within the foster care system are more likely to be found to have mental health issues due to the inadequacy

Adoptive Families are special; they have a desire to grow their families by reaching out to children that need homes. These families face many unique challenges, but also receive many rewards, associated with the decision to adopt. These challenges continue for many families, through the process of adoption, legal finalization, and for many years post-adoption. The challenges are different in many ways from those faced by biological parents. Adoptive parents not only face the normal challenges faced from raising a child, but also the psychological issues of the child/ren adopted. Some children placed for adoption have social, psychological, or physical problems that many adoptive families may not be able to address. Previous research has shown an association between post adoption services and successful adoptive placements. “Post adoption services often respond to the effects that separation, loss, and trauma can have on children and youth who have been adopted. They can facilitate adjustment processes; promote child, youth, and family well-being; and support family preservation” (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2012). It is because of these issues, and many others, that placement agency must consider when providing wrap around services for families.

An ideal environment for the social, emotional, and developmental growth of children does not always exist in today's society. Family units that have become separated due to family or behavior problems often contribute to delays in these areas. In order to promote continuity in the social, emotional, and developmental growth of children who have been victims of family disruption, children are often removed from the home and placed in foster care. Placement in the foster care system affects children in a unique, individual fashion. The affects of child-care by non-parental custodians, though subjective in nature, have common parameters that must be addressed and examined.

Everywhere across the world, more and more children are being placed into foster care or a welfare type system. Foster care can benefit children or harm them; the effects of foster care differ for every individual. These types of systems often have a major effect on young children’s physiological state. Children entering in foster care are often malnourished and have untreated health problems. A high percentage of children who are placed in these types of systems have mental health, physical health, and/or developmental issue which often originates while the individuals are still in the custody of the biological parents. Children in foster care should be provided with a healthy and nurturing environment which often provides positive long term results. The age of children in a foster care varies across the world, but it is often seen that majority of these children are young (George para. 1). There are more young children in the system because younger children require more adequate care than older children that are already in the system. Placing these children in welfare systems is supposed to be a healing process for them. Although this is supposed to be a healing process, statistics say these children have a negative experience while being in these systems, but this is not always the case. A number of children in foster care fall sucker to continuous neglect and recurrent abuse with the lack of nurturing and an unstable environment. These same children often have unmet

Many children are placed in foster care in the early years of life where the brain undergoes significant developmental changes, and they have usually undergone abuse and significant neglect in their lives resulting in them not experiencing a stable nurturing environment for them to develop normally in. At around 3-4 years of age the personality and emotional development of

Many foster children are facing an increased risk of behavior and mental problems (“Perceived Mental Health, 1). Foster children are vulnerable to neurocognitive delays that can hinder them from developing at the average rate of a child in a permanent home, such as poor memory skills, poor visuospatial process, and small language capacity (Leve, 1). These psychological problems are found in approximately half of the children that are adopted or released from the foster system (Lawrence, 3). How does placing children in foster care affect their mental development and behavior? This study will analyze the psychological effects that children face when they are placed in foster care.

If we take children out of a neglected home, and put them into homes in which they continuously experience neglect, are we really doing good for them or making the situation worse? Neglect and physical abuse will be better understood if it is viewed in a developmental perspective. Oswald (2010) examines the correlation beween development and foster care: “Foster children described more attention problems, social problems, delinquet and aggressive behavior etc..”(p.467). These foster children should recieve the same form of education and teaching as other children so they can avoid a possible developmental

In the U.S. 397,122 children are living without permanent families in the foster care system, as of 2012, more than 58,000 children in the U.S. foster care system were placed in institutions or group homes, not in traditional foster homes (CCAI, 2012). Can these children developmental need be meet in institutions and enable children to make sucker attachments? The American Journal of Psychiatry’s article “A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Foster Care and Institutional Care for Children With Signs of Reactive Attachment Disorder” examines signs of emotionally withdrawn and indiscriminately social reactive attachment disorder in three groups of young Romanian children that were abandoned by their parents. The placement of children into an institution was made by Romanian child protective officials. The research group ensured that no child, once placed in foster care, through the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, would be returned to an institutional setting, either during or after the study (Smyke, 2012).

Jennifer Windsor, Leslie E. Glaze, & Sebastian F. Koga write in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research an articled titled “Language Acquisition with Limited Input: Romanian Institution and Foster Care”. From the Abstract, the purpose of the article is to give detailed information on the development of language abilities on children who have been “institutionalized” (2007, p. 1365). Their participants were grouped into three categories: children growing up in an orphanage, children growing up in foster care (only for one year), and their control group consisted of children growing up in their biologically natural environments (2007, p. 1365). Their research method was performed using an experimental procedure type in which they compared the language development of children from institutions to that of children from biological settings. According to the abstract, the conclusion of this research is that children who spent time in foster care showed improved language abilities than children who were institutionalized (i.e., those who were not in foster care) (p. 1365).

There can be cultural, ethical, and legal concerns associated with this theory are somewhat intertwined. The possible assumption that if a child is born poor, of ethnic minority, raised in a violent setting, and neglected by parents – foster care placement may lead to disruption within the child’s chronosystem. This can lead to attachment issues related to trauma, increased fight or flight reactions that may lead to legal issues, academic challenges, and poor social skills. There is a possible ripple effect from life events and socioeconomic status that could lead to changes with behavior in association with the child’s environment. Understanding this theory can help with application in a school setting

Equally important, children not only are often neglected, in addition these children are exposed to harsh and complex environments/family structures. Children in these environments often struggle in school due to distractions. Distractions such as hunger, neglect, and family structures reduce academic motivation. Statistics prove that children in these harsh family structures struggle more. To illustrate, childtrends.org states “Children are much more likely to be poor if they live in single-mother families than if they live in married-couple families.” . This example proves that a harsh environment can affect a child, it is harsh on their ability to thrive in school.

It is well know that foster Children have a very hard time finding a permanent home and adjusting to their new home. The majority of foster children go through this process of finding a home at a very young age. For most of these children it occurs during very young age which is the most important time for develop mental processes. Therefore foster children are at risk of cognitive and social- emotional development delays. (Jacobson et. al 2013). As mentioned in the article “research has underscored the importance of early, nurturing caregiver environments on brain development, and the importance of positive brain-environment interaction during the first 2 years of life has also been documented by research on foster care and adoption”(Jacobson et. al 2013). The article currently looks at, specifically the issue of foster children’s cognitive development and social- emotional functioning specifically of children ages between 2 to 3 years of age. There has been previous research done on this article. A research done to look at this issue was one done in Romanian were 136 institutionalized children were randomly selected. These children were selected to continue to be institutionalized or placed in foster care. In this study, the foster parents were selected and trained,

In a longitudinal, correlational study, Kreppner et al. (2007) investigated whether early deprivation causes functional impairment and which features of early deprivation contribute to impairment. Kreppner, et al. (2007) chose four hypotheses derived from the current body of research: first, that the outcome would depend on the post-adoption environment because of its longer duration; second, that biological damage occurs during early deprivation so any resulting impairment would be still present at age 11; third, that deprivation beyond a sensitive period would be the decisive factor as to whether there was impairment at age 11; fourth, that impairment would be due to differences in individual resilience.