Orphaned ChildrenMorrison and Ellwood (2000):• Studied the development of children in Romanian

Orphanages• Orphaned children have cognitive delays• Orphanages: less praise, reinforcement,

development of new skills, adapting to needs• Studies of Romanian orphanages: children have

delays in cognitive and social development• Once adopted, they do improve, but still have

delays due to unresponsive and unstimulating backgrounds

Study Objectives• Compare cognitive development of Romanian

orphanage (RO) children who have been in adoptive homes for 3 years to non-adopted Canadian-born (CB) children.

• Cognitive delays not only due to background– Genetics: traits of parents who abandon

children– Nutrition: malnutrition affects cognitive

development– Adoption: parents may have lower

expectations for adopted children

• Early Adopted (ED) group: those adopted before 4 months of age

• Similar types of parents (abandoned): control for genetic background– Control for prenatal nutrition and the fact the

they are also not genetically related to parents

• Examine how adopted home affects cognitive development– Early home environment is related to cognitive

development

RO: spent at least 8 months in orphanage (range 8 to 53), had been in adoptive home median age of 39 months (26-57)EA: adopted before 4 months of age, had been in adoptive homes for a median age of 51 months (49-57).

Procedure:

Time 1 variables (1 year post adoption)• Denver Developmental Questionnaire

– 4 domains: personal-social, fine motor-adaptive, language, gross motor

• Background Variables: child’s family, institutional factors, health, developmental history

Time 2 variables (~3 years post adoption)• IQ test• Home Observation: assess quality of stimulation in

home and support available to a child

Results:

RO group had lower cognitive scores than CB & EA• EA group was in between RO and CB• Benefits of early adoption, but other environmental

and genetic factors still play a role

• In previous study, at 11 months post-adoption, institutional variables were highly related to developmental status of RO children.

• But at 3 years post-adoption most institutional variables were no longer related to development– only length of time in institution was related

Results:• 3 groups did not differ on SES and most parent

characteristics• But RO children had lower HOME scores than CB

children• Children with better HOME scores had higher IQ

scores, even after controlling for group status• RO children’s development positively related to

HOME scores and negatively related to length of time in institution

• Limitations?

Sparling et al. (2005)• Effects of intervention on development of children in

Romanian orphanage

• Study 1: non random assignment of children to experimental and control group.

• Study 2: random assignment• Participants resided in Romanian orphanage from birth to

3 years• Assessed on pre- and post-test in both studies and also

at mid point in study 1.

Intervention• Coordinated set of activities

– Staff training– Caregiver/intervention protocol: enriched caregiving,

extra stimulation, engaged children in educational events, individual curriculum

– Educational games– Supervision

Measures • Denver Developmental test was translated into

Romanian and administered pre- and post-intervention (midpoint in study 1)

Conclusions

• Importance of the behavior of caregivers• Intervention must be well-implemented• Intervention can prevent children from falling

further behind peers

• Beneficial effects of intervention likely underestimated in this study

• Avoid long stays in orphanage• Add resources needed for intervention