The Effects Of Foster Care

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The Developmental Issues on Children in the Foster Care System The foster care system is the system where children go when their parents are unable to take care of them. In the foster care system, children are placed by trained professionals who are licensed adults that provide substitute parental care when the parents are away. Research states that the number of children in the foster care system was 513,000, a decline of about 10% from 2000 (Bigner, 2011). Children that are placed in foster care have suspiciously high rates of physical, developmental, and mental health problems and often have many unmet medical and mental health care needs. A greater number of young children with complicated, serious physical health, mental health, or developmental problems are entering foster care during the early years when brain growth is most active. Data shows that in 2003, children aged birth to 3 had the highest rates of victimization, at 16.4 per 1,000 children of the same age group, and 78.7 percent of the estimated 1,500 children who died as a result of child abuse or neglect were younger than 4 years of age (Goode & Shaw, 2005). There is an increasing number of children are being placed in foster care because of parental neglect. Neglect has a long-lasting effect on all areas of child development which consists of poor attachment formation, under stimulation, development delay, poor physical development, and antisocial behavior. Being in an environment in which child-directed support and communication is limited makes it more difficult for a child to develop the brain connections that facilitate language and vocabulary development, and therefore may impair communication skills. Recent findings in infant mental health show how development can be facilitated, how treatment can enhance brain development and psychological health, and how prevention strategies can
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