Wk 11 Live lecture Flashcards
Explain the sample of the English-Romanian Adoption study
Romanian orphans were adopted by British parents and compared with British orphans who were adopted by British parents
What did Rutter (2004) find about 6 year old orphans?
If children were adopted before 6 years old, they generally had good outcomes.
If children were adopted after 6, Romanian children had cognitive delays and weighed less
What did O Connor (2000) find about children who were adopted after 2 years of deprivation?
At age 6 children had lower cognitive scores but some children improved.
What did Beckett (2006) find from when children were 11 years old?
Children with more than 2 years deprivation improved but still had impairments.
Children adopted after 6 months had lower IQ, emotional and behavioural difficulties, cognitive impairments, difficulties in social interaction, impairment of theory of mind
What did Rutter find about children who were 15 years old?
Children showed some emotional, behavioural, and peer relationship problems
Some children had difficulties in finding employment
What are positives of orphans who were adopted?
Most showed great resilience and adaptation
Most adoptees were very positive about the experiences within the families
What is the overall conclusion from ERA study about children adotped before 6 months?
If children are adopted before the age of 6 months then they can demonstrate resilience and catch-up developmentally.
What is the overall conclusion from ERA study about children adotped after 6 months?
Children show improvements but they never catch up with a control-group developmentally
What is the overall conclusion from ERA study about children who were adopted after 2 years or later?
Have severe cognitive and social limitations
What did Skuse do?
Presented a set of case studies of extreme deprivation.
Observed the child at the point of discovery, during recovery, and the final outcome
Outline the Genie case study
Spent her entire childhood locked in a bedroom, isolate, and abused for over a decade (13 years).
She was tied to a chair and her father would beat her.
What were Genie’s abilities like when she was discovered?
She couldn’t talk or use language.
She couldn’t stand, walk, eat or dress herself.
What were Genie’s abilities like during recovery?
She quickly learned how to walk, use the toilet, and dress herself etc.
She could communicate non-verbally but she could not develop language.
Outline the Oxana Malaya case study
Neglected by her alcoholic parents
Locked out of the house at 3 years old to live with the dogs
She lived as part of the dog’s pack for 5 years
What was Oxana Malaya’s behaviour when she was discovered?
Run on all fours and bark like a dog would.
No social/language skills
What is Oxana Malaya’s behaviour like now?
She can now walk and talk
What is the case of Daniela?
Found at 7 years old in a neglected house
What was Daniela like when she was discovered?
Physically underdeveloped (weighed nothing), malnourished
No facial expressions/emotions
No speech or language
What progress has Daniela made?
Can socialise
Can show emotions/personality
She still can’t talk but she can communicate non-verbally using pictures
What can we learn from the case of Oxana Malaya?
You can learn to imitate behaviour if you grow up with the appropriate love and care.
What can we conclude from the case study of Daniela?
Her first 3 years of deprivation impacted her later development
What is the case of the Koluchova twins?
Male MZ twins who experienced severe deprivation from the age of 18 months to 7 years (starved, beaten, locked in a cupboard)
What were the Koluchova twins like when discovered?
Terrified
Couldn’t walk
Basic play and language (strong attachment to each other)
Severe health problems due to malnutrition
What progress did the Koluchova twins make during recovery?
Developed normal speech and language
Caught up with school
No permanent cognitive impairments
What does the term critical period refer to?
Limitation of time for learning a task or function in development
What does the case of Genie provide evidence for regarding critical period?
Critical period for language acquisition is around 12-13 years.
What was Skuse’s conclusion regarding the effect of early deprivation on the eventual developmental outcome?
Victims of deprivation generally have an excellent prognosis as long as there is absence of genetic abnormalities.
What does Skuse’s review allow us to study?
Allows us to understand the minimum experiences needed during childhood that are necessary for typical psychological development
