The effects of severe deprivation on children's development

Orphanage conditions:

"Colourless, very quiet, with little visual or auditory stimulation" (Ames & Carter, 1992) o Not enough to eat and drink o Large caregiver:child ratios o Little opportunity to explore the environment (Dennis, 1973)

Critique of orphanage studies

(-) Are initial deficits due to malnutrition or social adversity & do later gains derive from improvements in nutrition or psychosocial circumstances? (-) No delineation of period of time in which gains are made following placement in improved environment. (-) Unable to inform us about possible limitations on recovery (-) Lack of comparison groups. By their nature, studies of this kind do not include random assignment to groups

Critical period definition

A period of time, biologically determined, during which specific environmental or biological events must occur for development to proceed normally e.g. imprinting

What is meant by cases of severe deprivation?

Children who have spent their early years in conditions of exceptional impoverishment and deprivation

Perceptual development

Condition at discovery: o Anna Thought to be blind when first discovered - unable to maintain eye contact and visually fixate on any object. Kept confined within one room at birth and received minimal visual stimulation. o Genie Kept in a room where the furthest object was 10 feet away. On removal from this environment she was found to be short-sighted to this degree. -> Temporarily impaired but rapid recovery

Study of Romanian adoptees: Ritter et al, 1998

Examined the extent of developmental deficit and catch-up following adoptions after severe global early privation at 4 years He looked at 111 Romanian children who entered the UK prior to 2 years, 52 UK adopted same-age children placed before 6 months Stratified sample; o <6 months o 6-<24 months o 24-43 months UK comparison group Investigated cognitive and behavioural outcomes at different age points: 4, 6, 11 and 15 years Main findings: Adverse early experiences may but do not necessarily have serious lasting effects on development Individuals possess a great deal of resilience Most human characteristics, except language are strongly 'canalised' Certain factors increase the chances of lasting handicaps whilst others may be protective Dramatic catch up following a positive change in rearing Duration of exposure to deprivation most powerful predictor of individual differences in intellectual development at age when adopted and at 4 years

The development of language

Language appears to be the most vulnerable cognitive faculty Language profoundly retarded at first in all cases reviewed Expressive speech was most severely retarded and developed rapidly than comprehension after placement in a normal environment

Critical/sensitive periods in language acquisition

Lenneberg (1967): human language is normally acquired during a critical period beginning early in life and ending at puberty. Lateralisation and end of the critical period. Newport (2006): formal properties of language appear to be sensitive to age of acquisition (phonology, morphology and syntax). It is essential to distinguish between global retardation and severe deprivation so that appropriate environmental manipulation and education can begin as soon as possible.

Implications of findings for theory:

Research has highlighted: Problems in attachment/social relations are not inevitable given prolonged severe early deprivation. There was some heterogeneity amongst individuals, so 'recovery' is possible. This is not consistent with Bowlby's argument Evidence fits better with the idea of sensitive periods for development rather than critical ones Highlights the importance of early adoption where necessary and possible to reduce the likelihood of subsequent developmental problems A specific pattern of behaviour associated with prolonged deprivation (rather than non-specific effects) which clinicians can use to pick up problems early and provide the necessary Types of behaviour and emotional problems experienced change with development. Important for clinicians t be aware of this, e.g. conduct disorder only appeared between 6-11 and pronounced by age 15

Critical period

Starts and ends: Abruptly During the period: Organism has a heightened sensitivity to external stimuli that are compulsory for the development of a particular skill After the period: Skill cannot be learned (in a normal way) after the period has ended Examples: Visual system (8 months to 3 years)

Sensitive period

Starts and ends: Gradually During the period: It is a period of maximal sensitivity After the period: Skill can still be learned but less efficiently/easily Examples: Language (@1-7 years)

English & Romanian Adoptee Studies (E.R.A)

Studied the impact of length and specific developmental timing of extreme deprivation in first 3 and a half years of life Facilitating factors : o Early entry into institutions o Determined by time of fall of Ceaucsescu regime, rather than disability or other reasons o Onset and offset of deprivation could be timed precisely o Little attribution of sample over time o Relatively large sample o Very systematic approach

Key findings of ERA research team from Longitudinal research:

The developmental improvements made by the Romanian children were rapid and often continued over a period of several years A proportion of the Romanian children adopted after six months experienced difficulties that were very uncommon in the UK group of adoptees, these were: o Austistic-like qualities o Problems with forming appropriate attachments and social functioning o Inattention, over activity and poor mental functioning One third of the Romanian children placed for adoption after the age of six months experienced problems requiring the intervention of professional educational, psychological or psychiatric services A substantial minority of the Romanian children seemed to be functioning normally in all respects at age eleven in spite of their adverse early experiences The degree to which the Romanian children were under-nourished had only a minor effect on their psychological outcomes Romanian children with even a very low level of language at the time of adoption had higher average IQ's aged eleven than those with no language skills The follow-ups at 15 years of ages and into young adulthood have revealed unusual patterns of persisting specific patterns of deficits and problems that appear to be deprivation-specific, out of which arise a number of emotional, conduct and peer-relationship problems

Canalisation

Waddington's epigenetic landscape (1975): o Early in development a system like a mind/brain, has a range of possible developmental paths and end states. o The developmental path and end state that results depend on the particular constraints that operate o Self-regulatory processes ensure that the organism returns to its channel following small disturbances o Large disturbances may lead to a completely different route being taken

Institutional rearing and development

another area of research that provides information about the impact of deprivation on children's development focuses on the experience of children reared in orphanages or children's homes

Wohlwill (1973)

by studying cases of severe deprivation in young children we can uncover the conditions that are absolutely essential for developmental processes to unfold

Looking at cases of severe deprivation and neglect we tend to see:

feral children, children raised in orphanages and children deliberately deprived as a result of immoral, mentally ill or incompetent caregivers

Curtiss (1988)

follows the case of Genie, this is a case of a child who acquired language beyond the 'critical' period however she had a much better linguistic-cognitive profile than expected; o Good lexical and propositional semantic abilities o Relatively normal non-linguistic cognitive function o Impairments in the use of language for social purposes o Impairments in the acquisition of grammar o Impairments in phonology

What is required for normal language development?

o Adequate nutrition o 'Prelinguistic behaviour' o Opportunity to explore and act on the environment o Acquisition of language during the 'critical' period

Examples of children rescued from extreme deprivation in their own homes are;

o Genie o The Koluchova twins o Mary and Louise o Alice and Beth o Anna o Isabelle

What are children who experienced severe deprivation likely to suffer?

o Limited social and emotional interaction o Limited opportunities to explore the environment o Maltreatment lack of toys to play with o Poor nutrition

Good outcome Koluchova twins:

o Malnourished o Gross neglect o Physical abuse o 1yr+? Normal stimulation o Had each other -> Strong attachment

Poor outcome Mary:

o Mental retardation with microcephaly o Inherited predisposition to autistic tendencies o No time in normal environment o No intense speech therapy o No strong attachments o Physical restraint

Common characteristics of cases of severe deprivation at discovery are;

o Motor retardation o Absent/rudimentary vocal symbolic language o Grossly retarded perceptuomotor skills o Limited emotional expression o Lack of attachment behaviour o Social withdrawal

Poor outcome Genie:

o Over 12 years deprivation o Physical abuse o Physical restraint o Malnourished o Gross neglect o Birth to 20mths? Normal environment o Mental retardation

Feral children cases

o Oxana, Ukrainian dog girl, lived for years with a dog pack o Lucas, Baboon boy, raised by troop of baboons o Kamala and Amala, Indian girls found by local police in a wolf den

Good outcome Louise:

o Physical restraint o Several strong attachments o Intensive speech therapy o 14mths? Normal stimulation o Special friend at school

Risk factors:

o Serious general malnourishment o Overt congenital abnormalities e.g. microcephaly associated with mental retardation o Complete absence of comprehensive and expressive speech at discovery especially where there is a large discrepancy between verbal and non-verbal mental age

Protective factors:

o The formation of an early focus of attachment with one special adult o Absence of congenital conditions o Having someone to communicate with during the period of deprivation

Symptoms at time of discovery

o Underweight o Unresponsive o Immobile o Low level/no play o Impairments in: • Non-verbal communication • Social interaction • Cognition • Spoken language • Comprehension • Motor skills

Skuse (1984)

saw that we need to know the similarities and differences between individual cases in: o Perception o Social responses o Capacity for speech production/comprehension o Emotional expression There are difficulties with this however, many aspects of development are affected and different psychological variables interact with each other

When rescued from severe deprivation:

these children have tended to display behaviour more characteristic of animals. They tend to have a poor prognosis where their linguistic and cognitive attainment tends to remain low, their social behaviour is usually strange although there is usually no indication of the children's prior development.