Children were randomly chosen to participate in this foster care program, giving scientists a rare opportunity to investigate what happens to children’s brains when they don’t have attention or emotional connection. A new study from the organization published Oct. 7 in Science Advances shows that this early deprivation continues brain progression into adolescence.
“We know, from years of working with animals, that brain progression forms in the early stages of life, but until now this has never been conclusively demonstrated in humans,” says Margaret Sheridan, a clinical psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the lead of a new study showing that deprivation in the early formative years shapes progression. of brain design during adolescence.
Sheridan and a team of researchers from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project published their findings in Science Advances. Their studies show that children who were randomly placed outside of institutional care and in a well-supported foster home before age 3 had adjustments in brain spaces that heralded higher-order problem-solving years later, when the young people were 16.
In addition, youth placed in high-quality foster homes before age 3 saw typical brain progression between ages 9 and 16, in spaces similar to emotional reactivity, language, and executive function, but this trend replaced youth without family worries.
“Here, we show that the opportunities a child has early in life to be informed and grow will have an effect not only on their behavior, but also on the progression and design of their brain for years to come,” Sheridan says. “Children want committed caregivers who help their progression from an early age. “
The Bucharest Early Intervention Project, introduced in 2001, is a landmark study on the impact of institutionalization, a severe form of neglect, on children’s development. This is the only randomised controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutionalisation. At 6 and 33 months, 68 children were taken out of orphanages and placed in quality foster families. Families who take in a child are visited by a social worker and receive substantial financial support, which helps them integrate and help young people.
Children were followed throughout their childhood, and early evidence of the negative effect of institutionalisation on progression replaced the way Romania approached childcare and family leave.
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