Exposure to childhood adversity has been consistently associated with poor developmental outcomes, but it is unclear whether these associations vary across different forms of adversity. We examined cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between threat and deprivation with cognition, emotional processing, and psychopathology in a…

The benefits of active music participation and training for cognitive development have been evidenced in multiple studies, with this link leveraged in music therapy approaches with clinical populations. Although music, rhythm, and movement activities are widely integrated into children's play and early education, few studies have systematically…

Over the last 20 years, we have learned much about the extent to which early-life deprivation affects the mental health of children and adolescents. This body of evidence comes predominantly from studies of children raised in institutional care. The Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) is the only randomized controlled trial designed to…

Suor et al. (2017) present a compelling new evolutionary framework that offers an alternative interpretation of the well-established findings of cognitive deficits in children raised in harsh early environments. They argue that such findings do not convey a complete picture of those children's cognitive development, because children's cognition…

Learning ought to be supported by both in class activities and outdoor activities contributing to structuring knowledge. Outdoor activities allow children to actively participate and to learn by doing. Learning requires a lot of work and activities. These activities, which provide primary experiences, help children to change theoretical knowledge…

Background: Previous reports from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project suggested that children removed from institutions and placed into intervention displayed gains in IQ relative to children randomized to remain in institutional care. Method: The current report presents data from the 8-year follow-up of these children. One hundred and three…

The neurodevelopmental sequelae of early deprivation were examined by testing (N = 132) 8- and 9-year-old children who had endured prolonged versus brief institutionalized rearing or rearing in the natal family. Behavioral tasks included measures that permit inferences about underlying neural circuitry. Children raised in institutionalized…

Transgenerational effects of alcohol on mothers' and children's intellectual functioning has been examined in 22 families from very deprived environments. Their psychosocial outcomes and IQ level were evaluated in a follow-up study on average seven years after they left the support group of a day-care centre for young children; school data were…

Every year 1.3 million U.S. high school students drop out of school with one quarter of female students failing to graduate on time. Female dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, to earn less when they are employed, to become pregnant before the age of 20, to become obese, to smoke, and to drink more heavily than their male counterparts. This…

The adoption into the UK of children who have been reared in severely deprived conditions provides an opportunity to study possible association between very early negative experiences and subsequent brain development. This cross-sectional study was a pilot for a planned larger study quantifying the effects of early deprivation on later brain…

Physical, neurodevelopmental, psychoeducational, and child history characteristics were analyzed in 116 second-grade, inner-city children identified as good and poor readers. Ss were basically healthy with few findings of physical or neurological abnormalities, despite significant group differences in the prevalence of "soft signs" and in all…

Cognitive outcomes at age 11 of 131 Romanian adoptees from institutions were compared with 50 U.K. adopted children. Key findings were of both continuity and change: (1) marked adverse effects persisted at age 11 for many of the children who were over 6 months on arrival; (2) there was some catch-up between ages 6 and 11 for the bottom 15%; (3)…

An extended longitudinal study compared cognitive development in children adopted from Romania before 24 months and in United Kingdom adoptees with an additional sample of Romanian children adopted after 24 months. Findings indicated that there was considerable catch-up among late-placed Romanian children but they exhibited lower cognitive scores…

Describes early childhood developmental deficits associated with long-term poverty as indicated by the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Suggests substantial disadvantages in cognitive development among young children in chronically poor families. Deficits appear in a variety of indices of cognitive or socioemotional development,…

Examined the impact of individual environmental and biological risks on the home environment of three-year olds in a sample of low birth weight, premature infants. Suggests that compared to nonpoor families, poor families experienced more multiple risk factors. Poverty clearly had a negative effect on the provision of learning experiences,…