They found that institutionalized children had smaller brains, with a lower volume of both gray matter (which is made primarily of the cell bodies of neurons) and white matter (which is mainly the nerve fibers that transmit signals between neurons). The researchers also used structural MRI to further understand the brain differences among the children. In fact, when kids were moved into foster care before their second birthdays, by age 8 their brains' electrical activity looked no different from that of community controls. But to reverse the effects of neglect, he adds, "the earlier, the better." "There's a bit of plasticity in the system," Fox says. Those removed from the institutions before age 2 made the biggest gains. And some foster children fared much better than others. While foster care produced notable improvements, though, children in foster homes still lagged behind the control group of children who had never been institutionalized. They were able to form secure attachment relationships with their caregivers and made dramatic gains in their ability to express emotions. These children showed improvements in language, IQ and social-emotional functioning. They also showed changes in the patterns of electrical activity in their brains, as measured by EEG.įor kids who were moved into foster care, the picture was brighter. They showed deficits in socio-emotional behaviors and experienced more psychiatric disorders. Institutionalized children had delays in cognitive function, motor development and language. They found many profound problems among the children who had been born into neglect. They also evaluated a control group of local children who had never lived in an institution. Over the subsequent months and years, the researchers returned to assess the development of the children in both settings. The children ranged in age from 6 months to nearly 3 years, with an average age of 22 months. The other half remained in care as usual. Then they randomly assigned half of the children to move into Romanian foster families, whom the researchers recruited and assisted financially. The trio launched their project in 2000 and began by assessing 136 children who had been living in Bucharest's institutions from birth. As the children's plight became public, Fox, Nelson and Zeanah realized they had a unique opportunity to study the effects of early institutionalization. In 1989 Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was overthrown, and the world discovered that 170,000 children were being raised in Romania's impoverished institutions. Now, researchers are beginning to understand some of the ways that early deprivation alters a person's brain and behavior - and whether that damage can be undone. "Across the board, these are kids who have severe problems throughout their lifetime," says Wolfe, recent past editor-in-chief of Child Abuse & Neglect. Hildyard, PhD, detailed in a 2002 review ( Child Abuse & Neglect, 2002). Wolfe, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, and his former student Kathryn L. Those are just some of the problems that David A. The list of problems that stem from neglect reads like the index of the DSM: poor impulse control, social withdrawal, problems with coping and regulating emotions, low self-esteem, pathological behaviors such as tics, tantrums, stealing and self-punishment, poor intellectual functioning and low academic achievement. Of those, more than 78 percent suffered from neglect. children were reported to have experienced maltreatment in 2011. Department of Health and Human Services, 676,569 U.S. In the United States, neglect is a less obvious - though very real - concern. UNICEF estimates that as many as 8 million children are growing up in institutional settings around the world. Neglect isn't just a Romanian problem, of course. They describe their Bucharest Early Intervention Project in a new book, "Romania's Abandoned Children: Deprivation, Brain Development, and the Struggle for Recovery" (2014). "Basically these kids were left on their own," Fox says.įox, along with colleagues Charles Nelson, PhD, at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, and Charles Zeanah, MD, at Tulane University, have followed those children for 14 years. Many stared at their own hands, trying to derive whatever stimulation they could from the world around them. The babies laid in cribs all day, except when being fed, diapered or bathed on a set schedule. "The most remarkable thing about the infant room was how quiet it was, probably because the infants had learned that their cries were not responded to," says Fox, who directs the Child Development Laboratory at the University of Maryland. The first time Nathan Fox, PhD, stepped into a Romanian orphanage, he was struck by the silence.
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