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
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
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