Foster care boosts IQ of children in orphanages

Romanian children are seen in a care center in Bucharest in this picture taken January 9, 2006. Abandoned children in Romania who were removed from orphanages and put in foster care had far better reasoning, language, and other intellectual skills than those who remained, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. (Bogdan Cristel/Reuters)CHICAGO (Reuters) - Abandoned children in Romania who wereremoved from orphanages and put in foster care had far betterreasoning, language, and other intellectual skills than thosewho remained, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
The study is one of the first scientific investigations ofthe impact of foster care on reversing the damage of severeneglect to a child's developing brain.
Earlier studies have shown the physical and emotionaleffects left by the country's notorious communist-eraorphanages.
The latest results show children who were moved to fostercare enjoyed an average eight- to 10-point gain in intelligencequotient or IQ, a measure of aspects of intelligence such aslanguage, reasoning, planning and problem solving.
"Kids who stay in institutions have greatly diminishedIQs," said Charles Nelson of Children's Hospital Boston and aprofessor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
"Their IQs were in the low- to mid-70s. In the UnitedStates, that would meet the criteria for mental retardation,"Nelson said in an telephone interview.
Nelson, whose study was published in the journal Science,said the earlier a child was moved to foster care, the greaterthe improvement. Children who were placed in foster care beforeage 2 saw a 12- to 15-point increase in IQ.
'SENSITIVE PERIOD'
"Our findings suggest there may be a sensitive periodspanning the first two years of life within which the onset offoster care exerts a maximal effect on cognitive development,"he said in a statement.
The study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthurFoundation, began in the capital Bucharest in 2000 at a timewhen Romania had no foster care system. It included 136children under 31 months living in six institutions.
Nelson said babies in these institutions often lie on theirbacks for hours with little outside stimulation or closecontact with a care giver.
He and colleagues recruited foster parents throughextensive advertising, and then screened them for suitability.They ended up with 56 families.
The researchers placed 68 of the children in these homes,keeping siblings together. Their average age at placement was21 months. The rest remained institutionalized. A thirdcomparison group of 72 children lived with their families inBucharest.
Overall, the children placed in foster care performedbetter when tested at ages 3-1/2 and 4-1/2 than those whostayed behind.
But even the foster care children saw lingering deficits,with IQ scores nearly 10 points below the children who hadnever lived in an institution.
"The intervention worked best for kids placed under age 2,but it didn't completely erase the negative effects," Nelsonsaid.
In the wake of the study's initial findings, the Romaniangovernment barred institutionalizing children less than 2 yearsold unless the child is severely disabled.
Nelson said the study could serve to guide policy in othercountries with large populations of abandoned children."The hope is that there will be major changes in otherplaces as well," he said.(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, Editing by Maggie Fox andXavier Briand)