Month: August 2021

This study compares the development of children living in institutions to the development of formerly institutionalized children now living in Romanian foster homes established by the Network. (Both groups of children are also compared to a group of never-institutionalized Romanian children living with their biological families.) The domains of development studied include brain, behavior, social-emotional development, attachment, cognition, language development, and physical growth. The goals of the study are:

1. to examine the effects, across a number of domains, of early social deprivation experienced by young children raised in Romanian institutions
2. to determine to what extent an intervention (in this case, placing the child with a foster family) could remediate the negative effects of institutionalization

Three groups of young children are being studied: 66 children raised in institutions and remaining institutionalized, 70 removed from institution and placed in foster homes screened, and trained under the auspices of the Network, and 72 …

The Network has established a collaboration with the National Research Council Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. Together, the two organizations will explore various ways in which they may be able to provide specific audiences (e.g., policy makers, practitioners, educators) with responsible, accurate scientific information needed to make effective decisions about the lives of children.

Working Group On Public Dissemination And Social Policy

The Network has, from its inception, had an interest in the dissemination of responsible scientific information to the public. All too often, science is oversimplified, misunderstood, or misapplied. In an effort to be a broker of reliable science, the Network has established a joint working group with several members of the National Research Council/Institute of Medicine Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development. This committee recently published a report, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, which distills many years of research …