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Early Childhood Neglect Associated With Altered Brain Structure, ADHD
vinces99 writes "Under the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, thousands of Romanian children were placed in overcrowded orphanages with bleak conditions and minimal human contact, a legacy that continued even after the 1989 revolution. Only recently have research and public concern caused policy changes.
University of Washington research on children who began life in these institutions shows that early childhood neglect is associated with changes in brain structure. A paper published this month in Biological Psychiatry shows that children who spent their early years in these institutions have thinner brain tissue in cortical areas that correspond to impulse control and attention. "These differences suggest a way that the early care environment has dramatic and lasting effects for children's functioning," said lead author Katie McLaughlin, a UW assistant professor of psychology.
Since 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project has worked to document and treat the children's health. McLaughlin joined the team about six years ago to focus on brain development. This study is among the first in any setting to document how social deprivation in early life affects the thickness of the cortex, the thin folded layer of gray matter that forms the outer layer of the brain. The study provides "very strong support" for a link between the early environment and ADHD, McLaughlin said.
University of Washington research on children who began life in these institutions shows that early childhood neglect is associated with changes in brain structure. A paper published this month in Biological Psychiatry shows that children who spent their early years in these institutions have thinner brain tissue in cortical areas that correspond to impulse control and attention. "These differences suggest a way that the early care environment has dramatic and lasting effects for children's functioning," said lead author Katie McLaughlin, a UW assistant professor of psychology.
Since 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project has worked to document and treat the children's health. McLaughlin joined the team about six years ago to focus on brain development. This study is among the first in any setting to document how social deprivation in early life affects the thickness of the cortex, the thin folded layer of gray matter that forms the outer layer of the brain. The study provides "very strong support" for a link between the early environment and ADHD, McLaughlin said.
Are people still getting ADHD ? Aren't they updating to AD4K these days.
When we are born, we have no choice what home we are born into, or who our parents are. We may be born into wealth or poverty. We may have parents who treat us with care and tenderness; or we may have parents who don't know how to care for a child, have drug addictions, are incarcerated, are violent, or are mentally unstable. Some children are loved and kissed, while other children are severely neglected, beaten, or abused sexually. This is the lottery we all played. Most of us won. Some children lost.
Abused children are missing a part of their childhood. Where they should have received love, they received brutality or neglect. Because they missed out on a crucial part of their development, they are behind the other children. Children which have to be removed from their parents for their protection can sometimes be placed with family or a close friend. When this is not possible, they enter the foster care system.
In the foster care system, there may be many people involved in the child's life: parents, other family or friends, social workers, attorneys, therapists, doctors, educators, foster parents or group home staff, and hopefully a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) or Guardian ad Litem (GAL).
A CASA is a volunteer who is a constant adult presence in the child's life, which may be lacking other permanency. While social workers, group home staff, therapists, and doctors may work with many children, a CASA is assigned to a single child. The CASA meets with the child at least every other week, takes her out for activities or to eat, learns about her needs and circumstances, and uses this knowledge to advocate for her best interests.
Please consider volunteering as a CASA.
http://www.casaforchildren.org...
We adopted our son a few years ago. When you're going through the process you're required to take classes where they prepare you for this. Romanian and Russian orphanages are so horrific we specifically ruled out adopting from those countries. It's a tough choice but you have to weigh your families ability to deal with huge amounts of stress and the financial burden of years of therapy, drugs, etc...
We adopted from Ethiopia, which is a country that's renowned how well they care for their orphans despite the poverty. I saw the care centers, and the people that ran them. They rival daycares here in the US and the workers hugged and cried with my son when he left. Even despite that, the lack of a true 1on1 relationship with a mother has had a significant impact on my son. With women especially, he fears they'll leave him. He acts out to get attention. His teachers need to do special 1on1 activities with him to reassure him. Give him special tasks, etc. It's tough but he's otherwise a great kid and definitely smarter than I was at that age. It's the biggest challenge I've ever had in my life. I couldn't imagine what the famillies of those Romanian children are going through. My hat is off to them.
One of the first things they have you watch is this study from the 1950s where they gave monkeys a Fake wire mother that had milk and cloth mother that did not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Caution: it's emotionally disturbing to a lot of people.
The monkey would rather starve on the cloth comforting mother than eat on the wire mother.