Effects of Early Deprivation on the Development of Institutionalised Children free essay sample

Early Deprivation on the Development of Institutionalised Children Abstract Deprivation is defined as a reduced fulfillment of an essential desire or need. Studies on the development of children reared in institutions and orphanages help us to look at the effects of deprivation. Institutionalised children are reported to perform poorly on intelligence tests and to be slow learners with specific difficulties in language and social development, in comparison to orphaned children. They also have problems concentrating and forming emotional relationships, and are often described as attention seeking. Children who are exposed to institutions for a sensitive period, generally being several months of the first two years of an infants’ life, show no deficit in IQ by the age of 4. Children adopted after this sensitive period show marked deficits in IQ, and the longer children are kept in these institutions, the greater their impairments. However, cognitive development for children beginning in the second year of life can be substantially improved through high-quality preschool programs. â€Å"Deprivation is the reduced fulfillment of a desire or need that is felt to be essential† (Mijolla, 2005). Studies on children reared in institutions and orphanages are natural experiments that help us to look at the effects of the social and maternal deprivation on infants. Institutionalised children would have been deprived of physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Publications on the damaging psychological consequences of institutional care by Goldfarb (1944; 1945) and Bowlby (1951) highlighted a number of emotional, behavioural and intellectual impairments in children who had been raised in residential care. Children living in institutions are reported to perform poorly on intelligence tests and to be slow learners with specific difficulties in language and social development. In addition, they have problems concentrating and forming emotional relationships, and are often described as attention seeking. The lack of an emotional attachment to a mother figure during early childhood was attributed as the cause of these problems, which were considered to be long lasting. ‘Attachment theory’ (Bowlby, 1969) emphasised the importance of a primary caregiver for normal child development. The absence of a relationship with a consistent caregiver is reported by other studies to cause attachment disorder behaviour in children who were adequately cared for and exposed to social stimulation (Tizard Hodges, 1978). Johnson, Browne, Hamilton-Giachritsis (2006) found that 12 of the 13 studies on intellectual development of children who have been raised in institutions reported that poor cognitive performance and lower IQ scores were associated with children in institutional care, illustrating the negative effects of this environment in comparison to family based care. However, some of these studies also suggest that early removal to family based care can result in recovery and catch up. This was illustrated in the longitudinal studies of Thomas O’Conner, Michael Rutter and the English and Romanian Adoptees study team (1998, 2000). Research on these orphaned children showed that the earlier infants are removed from deprived rearing conditions, the greater their catch-up in development and the less severe their attachment disorders (Rutter et al. , 2000). This timing effect indicates the importance of early experience in laying the foundation for positive gains in cognitive development. Cognitive catch-up was virtually complete by the age of 4 for children adopted before 6 months of age (Rutter et al. ,1998). However, children adopted after this sensitive period had an average IQ deficit of 15 points at age 11(Beckett, C. , Maughan, B. , Rutter, M. , Castle, J. , Colvert, E. , Groothues, C. , Kreppner, J. , Stevens, S. , OConnor, T. G. , Sonuga-Barke, E. J. S, 2006). These adoptees were far more likely to display cognitive impairment and behavioural problems at 6 years of age than were children adopted in the first 6 months of life (Rutter et al. 1998). There was a marked catch-up in psychological functioning for these children in the first few years after adoption, however, signi? cant problems continued in a substantial minority of the children placed after the age of 6 months (Rutter, Colvert, Kreppner, Beckett, Groothues, Hawkins, O’Connor, Stevens, Sonuga-Burke, 2007a). At age 11 quasi-autistic patterns were seen in over 1 in 10 of the children who expe rienced profound institutional deprivation (Rutter, Kreppner, Croft, Murin, Colvert, Beckett, Castle, Sonuga-Burke, 2007b). The results from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) also indicated that children removed from institutions and placed in foster care displayed higher IQ scores compared to children who remained in institutions and that those removed prior to 24 months showed sustained but not robust gains in IQ (Fox, Almas, Degna, Nelson, Zeanah, 2011). Dennis (1973) and Kagan (1979) suggested a similar sensitive period, after which the effects of institutional deprivation would be irreversible. However, in the BEIP study there were no children who were less than 6 months of age at the time of placement into foster case. Therefore, the timing (age) of intervention cannot directly be compared between these studies. However, there may be different sensitive periods for different aspects of cognition. The length of these sensitive periods depends on the severity of the orphanage experience. These studies emphasised the continued importance of early intervention and the negative effects of severe psychosocial deprivation on the development of IQ scores. Both analyses suggest that to sustain effects of early intervention it is critical to maintain the child in a stable enriched environment. Infants provided with this early experience gain more if the enriched context is maintained from the period of early childhood to the time of entry into elementary school (Fox et al. , 2011). The findings of Ramey Ramey (2004) indicate that impairments to cognitive development for children beginning in the second year of life can be substantially reduced through a high-quality preschool program. Improved performance in reading and mathematics, and also a reduction in special education placement and grade retention was experienced in the long-term for these children. Ramey Ramey (2000) indicated that the quality and quantity of developmentally appropriate early childhood experiences are strongly linked to later performance in school and society. Bierman, Domitrovich, Nix, Gest, Welsh, Greenberg, Blair, Nelson, Gill (2008) agreed with these findings, indicating that improvement in executive function skills through high-quality preschool teaching reduce the achievement gap associated with socioeconomic disadvantage. Research has documented many effects of institutional deprivation on children, including cognitive problems, speech and language delays, social and behavioural abnormalities such as attachment disorders, quasi-autism and inattention. Long-term problems are more frequent in post-institutionalised (PI) children who are adopted at older ages, and developmental catch-up and improvements are greater when children transition to families earlier. This sensitive period is generally thought to be the first several months of life. 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