Effects of Early Deprivation on the Development of Institutionalised Children

Effects of 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.

“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

References: Beckett, C., Maughan, B., Rutter, M., Castle, J., Colvert, E., Groothues, C., Kreppner, J., Stevens, S., O 'Connor, T. G., & Sonuga-Barke, E. (2006). Do the effects of early severe deprivation on cognition persist into early adolescence? Findings from the English and Romanian Adoptees study. Child Development, 77(3), 696-711. Bierman, K. L., Domitrovich, C. E., Nix, R. L., Gest, S. D., Welsh, J. A., Greenberg, M. T., Blair, C., Nelson, K. E., & Gill. S. (2008). Promoting academic and social emotional school readiness: The head start REDI program. Child Development, 79(6), 1802 - 1817. Bierman, K. L., Nix, R. L., Greenberg, C. B., Domitrovich, C. E. (2008). Development and Psychopathology, 20(3), 821 - 843. Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Headquarters. Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment: Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. London, United Kingdom: Hogarth Press. Dennis, W. (1973). Children of the Creche. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. Fox, N. A., Almas, A. N., Degna, K. A., Nelson C. A., & Zeanah, C. H. (2011). The effects of severe psychosocial deprivation and foster care intervention on cognitive development at 8 years of age: findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(9), 919 - 928. Goldfarb, W. (1944). The effects of early institutional care on adolescent personality. Journal of Experimental Education, 12, 106–129. Goldfarb, W. (1945). Effects of psychological deprivation in infancy and subsequent stimulation. American Journal of Psychiatry, 102, 18–33. Johnson, R., Browne, K. D., & Hamilton-Giachritsis, C. E.(2006). Young children in institutional care at risk of harm. Trauma, Violence and Abuse, 7(1), 1–26. Kagan, J. (1979). The form of early development: Continuity and discontinuity in emergent competencies. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 1047-1054. Mijolla A. (Ed.) (2005). International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Vol. 1. Detriot, USA: Thomson Gale. Ramey, S.L., & Ramey, C.T. (2000). Early childhood experiences and developmental competence. In J. Waldfogel & S. Danziger (Eds.), Securing the future: Investing in children from birth to college (pp. 122-150). NY: Russell Sage. Ramey, C. T., & Ramey, S. L. (2004). Early learning and school readiness: can early intervention make a difference? Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50(4),471-491. Rutter, M., and the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study team. (1998). Developmental catch-up and delay, following adoption after severe global early deprivation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 465-476. Rutter, M., and the English and Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study team. (2000). Attachment Disorder Behavior Following Early Severe Deprivation: Extension and Longitudinal Follow-up. Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 703-712. Rutter, M., Colvert, E., Kreppner, J., Beckett, C. J., Groothues, C., Hawkins, A., O’Connor, T., Stevens, S., Sonuga-Burke, E. (2007a). Early adolescent outcomes for institutionally - deprived and non- deprived adoptees I: Disinhibited attachment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48(1), 17–30. Rutter, M., Kreppner, J., Croft, C., Murin, M., Colvert, E., Beckett, C., Castle, J. Sonuga-Burke, E. (2007b). Early adolescent outcomes for institutionally deprived and non-deprived adoptees III: Quasi - autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48(12), 1200–1207. Tizard, B., & Hodges, J. (1978). The effect of early institutional rearing on the development of eight-year-old-children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 19, 99-118.