The Impact of Foster Care on Child Development

*Nationwide, over one quarter of foster children enter care when they are under age 5. This has enormous ramifications. Children who enter foster care during their first 3-4 years of life are doing so during the most active time of brain growth and development.

Emotional and cognitive disruptions in the early lives of children have the potential to impair brain development.

Brain Development
1.) Anatomic brain structures that govern personality traits, learning processes and coping with stress and emotions are being established, strengthened and made permanent. If unused, these brain structures atrophy.

2.) Nerve connections and neurotransmitter networks that are forming during these critical years are influenced negatively by lack of stimulation, child abuse and violence within the family.

Emotional Development
1.) The ability to attach emotionally. Paramount in the lives of children is the need for continuity with primary caregivers and a sense of permanence.

To develop into a psychologically healthy human being, a child needs to have a stable relationship with at least one adult who is nurturing and protective and who fosters trust and security.

This process is called attachment. It forms the basis for life-long relationships. Attachment is an active process: it can be secure or insecure. Attachment to a primary caregiver is necessary in order for a child to develop emotional security and a social conscience.

2.) Developing a sense of self. Foster children are spending their formative years in a state of instability and insecurity.

Adults cope with impermanence by building on a previously-built sense of self-reliance and by anticipating and planning for a time of greater constancy. Children, on the other hand, have limited life experience on which to establish their sense of self.

An adult experiencing a time of chaos can think back to a time of stability in the past in order to anticipate and plan for stability in the future. For a child, everything is now. Power is in the hands of adults.

During the first several years of a child’s life, patterns of interaction are formed, both psychologically and in the brain structure, making it more difficult (but not impossible) to improve a child’s physical, cognitive and emotional abilities.

*According to the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent Care.