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Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / December 2007Romanian orphanages vs foster care
There's an interesting article in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/health/21cnd-foster.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin Researchers in Romania found that kids who were in foster care averaged IQs of 81, kids in institutions averaged 73, and kids in their biofamilies averaged 109...sounds like a kid deprived of a biofamily risks an IQ drop of 28 points (if the sample families were properly matched) even if they go into foster care. And kids who go to institutions instead of foster care see a further drop of 8 points. Wonder how adoption compares with fosters and bios. Excerpt: "After gaining clearance from the government, the researchers began to track 136 children who had been abandoned at birth. They administered developmental tests to the children, and then randomly assigned them to continue at one of Bucharest's six large orphanages, or join an adoptive family. The foster families were carefully screened and provided "very high-quality care," Dr. Nelson said. "On I.Q. tests taken at 54 months, the foster children scored an average of 81, compared to 73 among the children who continued in an institution. The children who moved into foster care at the youngest ages tended to show the most improvement, the researchers found. "The comparison group of youngsters who grew up in their biological families had an average I.Q. of 109 at the same age, found the researchers, who announced their preliminary findings as soon in Romania as they were known." > There's an interesting article in the NY Times: > [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > researchers, who announced their preliminary findings as soon in > Romania as they were known." Interesting. Maia didn't talk at all when we first met her. That was a big concern, though we could see in other ways that she was smart. We adopted her in early May. By late August (she was a little over two), she knew 150 words of English by my coiunt. There are other ways that the orphanage experience affected her--at least, affected the measurement of her intelligence. She started kindergarten this year, and we took for tests at different schools. One school told us that she had tested at the first percentile level. You have to be virtually brain dead to test at the first percentile, and we know that that's not the case. How she performs, depends on how the tester approaches her. If she feels too anxious, too on the spot, she'll hide somewhere inside herself. That's the orphanage, too, I think. >> There's an interesting article in the NY Times: >> [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] >feels too anxious, too on the spot, she'll hide somewhere inside herself. >That's the orphanage, too, I think. IMO you can take the child out of the orphanage but you can't necessarily take the orphanage out of the child. My son is now officially 16, though bone aging puts him closer to 19 years old. He was abandoned around age 3 and was mute from the day he was abandoned until about 2 weeks after he came to our family, just over 2 years of silence. He started speaking one afternoon - on the same day he decided to cling desperately to me, refusing to be away from my side for the next 18 months or so. Even now, I can measure my son's anxiety level according to his speaking volume. Whenever he is out of his depth he becomes quieter and quieter until he is barely audible. His IQ tests place him in the mild intellectual disability range, though that is a totally misleading categorisation because his subtest results are so disparate. For those with a statistical interest he completed 16 subtests, scoring three standard deviations below the norm in his lowest result and three standard deviations above the norm in his highest result - leaving his psychologist astounded.. He struggles enormously with verbal intelligence tests (those depending on understanding the spoken and written word, and requiring a verbal response) but he performs better than the norm on performance tests (those depending on observation, not language). He is now entering his last two years of high school and we are trying to find an apprenticeship for him. He will do fabulously well if he can stand alongside someone who can demonstrate his trade. Last Thursday we attended our son's graduation ceremony from high school (we have separate schools for the final two years of senior high school). He received his school's annual award for a student who has overcome adversity to achieve his personal best. He held his first art exhibition the same week and sold all five of his pieces. Of all my children I take particular pride in seeing this son excel. He's come a hell of a long way. Julia > ><rkb...@pacific.net.sg> wrote in message > >news:6b2804b7-c9f7-4fa6-8005-f4259a45fe3c@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com... [quoted text clipped - 81 lines] > > Julia- Hide quoted text - Congratulations to you both, Julia! (Or I guess, to all of you) >>> There's an interesting article in the NY Times: >>> [quoted text clipped - 83 lines] > > Julia Thank you for this information. I especially like that observation--you can take the child out of the orphanage but you can't take the orphanage out of the child--I think that's exactly right. Congratulations to you and your son! What an achievement! Is his artwork online? >>>> There's an interesting article in the NY Times: >>>> [quoted text clipped - 90 lines] >Congratulations to you and your son! What an achievement! Is his artwork >online? No, he doesn't have any artwork online. Maybe on day. His exhibition was at a local community arts centre. Julia > IMO you can take the child out of the orphanage but you can't > necessarily take the orphanage out of the child. That I believe. Which is why people who say that these children should be left in orphanages in their home countries rather than be adopted by evil Americans (or Brits, or Aussies, etc.) are just plain nuts. > He held his first art exhibition the same week and sold all five of > his pieces. Of all my children I take particular pride in seeing this > son excel. He's come a hell of a long way. Outstanding. If he puts his work on-line I'd love to see it. Sounds like a great young man. steve In article <6b2804b7-c9f7-4fa6-8005-f4259a45fe3c@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, > There's an interesting article in the NY Times: > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > And kids who go to institutions instead of foster care see a further > drop of 8 points. Another excerpt: "On I.Q. tests taken 18 months after placement, children placed into homes of desperate American adopters averaged I.Q.s 54 points less than the I.Q.s of their biological mothers. These children also scored in the lowest decile in behavioral testing and further scored in the highest decile in fire-starting." steve > In article > <6b2804b7-c9f7-4fa6-8005-f4259a45f...@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > steve You missed the bit about peeing on the cat. And virulently contagious ACS. >> In article >> <6b2804b7-c9f7-4fa6-8005-f4259a45f...@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com>, [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] >You missed the bit about peeing on the cat. >And virulently contagious ACS. And not to forget adoptee's problems with mucus. Biological families never have to contend with cookie snot! |
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