Romania’s Abandoned Children

Romania’s Abandoned Children PDF Author: Charles A. Nelson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674726073
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
The implications of early experience for children's brain development, behavior, and psychological functioning have long absorbed caregivers, researchers, and clinicians. The 1989 fall of Romania's Ceausescu regime left approximately 170,000 children in 700 overcrowded, impoverished institutions across Romania, and prompted the most comprehensive study to date on the effects of institutionalization on children's well-being. Romania's Abandoned Children, the authoritative account of this landmark study, documents the devastating toll paid by children who are deprived of responsive care, social interaction, stimulation, and psychological comfort. Launched in 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) was a rigorously controlled investigation of foster care as an alternative to institutionalization. Researchers included 136 abandoned infants and toddlers in the study and randomly assigned half of them to foster care created specifically for the project. The other half stayed in Romanian institutions, where conditions remained substandard. Over a twelve-year span, both groups were assessed for physical growth, cognitive functioning, brain development, and social behavior. Data from a third group of children raised by their birth families were collected for comparison. The study found that the institutionalized children were severely impaired in IQ and manifested a variety of social and emotional disorders, as well as changes in brain development. However, the earlier an institutionalized child was placed into foster care, the better the recovery. Combining scientific, historical, and personal narratives in a gripping, often heartbreaking, account, Romania's Abandoned Children highlights the urgency of efforts to help the millions of parentless children living in institutions throughout the world.

Romania's Abandoned Children

Romania's Abandoned Children PDF Author: Charles A. Nelson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674726995
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
This “landmark study of child development” examines the devastating effects of early childhood institutionalization (Avshalom Caspi, Duke University). In 1989, the fall of Romania's Ceausescu regime left approximately 170,000 children in impoverished institutions across the country. This crisis prompted the most comprehensive study to date on the effects of institutionalization on a child’s brain development, behavior, and psychological functioning. Romania's Abandoned Children documents this landmark study, and the devastating toll paid by children who are deprived of responsive care, social interaction, stimulation, and psychological comfort. Launched in 2000, the Bucharest Early Intervention Project was a rigorously controlled investigation of foster care as an alternative to institutionalization. Examining a total of 136 abandoned infants and toddlers, researchers randomly assigned half of them to foster care, while the other half stayed in Romanian institutions. Over a twelve-year span, both groups were assessed for physical growth, cognitive functioning, brain development, and social behavior. Data from a third group of children raised by their birth families were collected for comparison. The study found that the institutionalized children were severely impaired, but that the sooner they were placed into foster care, the better their recovery. Combining scientific, historical, and personal narratives in a gripping, often heartbreaking, account, Romania's Abandoned Children highlights the need to help the millions of parentless children living in institutions throughout the world.

Abandoned for Life

Abandoned for Life PDF Author: Izidor Ruckel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780934334136
Category : Orphanages
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is a mass market paperback with striking cover.

Memories of Childhood

Memories of Childhood PDF Author: Nicolae Viorel Burcea
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781539439516
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In 1990, American news magazine 20/20 first showed the world the horrible conditions that many of Romania's orphans encountered on an almost daily level each and every day. The images and videos of these orphanages, run down and almost in shambles, inhabited by children who looked barely living and nonhuman, shocked the world. Almost immediately, there was an international outcry, and an outpouring of international adoptions and aid into the country to save these children. The country of Romania panicked, and the world watched as more and more horrible stories emerged about the awful conditions of these orphans, the ones that would become a lost and abandoned generation. But, what was it really like? Besides the things the world saw and heard, what was the daily life and doings of the common Romanian orphan? What did they experience? How did they survive the terrible things that befell them? What was it really like to live in these awful conditions? In "Memories of Childhood," you'll get an exclusive inside story of a Romanian orphan named Nicolae Burcea. His memoirs from 1997 to 2001 recounts the vivid details of the day to day life of a typical Romanian orphan. You'll see the constant "relocations," the daily beatings, the friendships that were made and lost within a few minutes, the poor education and schooling, the concerns and worries about where to find food next, the abuse that never ended, the happy vacations that came a few times a year, the charity events, the long and never ending process to get adoption finalized, and the fight to remain dominant in a building crowded with other orphans struggling to survive and live. You'll see the hopes and devastations of a lonely child, and the thoughts and feelings of a boy who couldn't and wouldn't lose hope. Step into a world where everything normal is flipped upside down, and innocence as we know it simply does not exist. This book is truly unique in its vivid details and observations. Here is an eyewitness account of a boy- and others like him- who were simply abandoned and forgotten. Nicolae Burcea's story gives a voice to the thousands of orphaned children who had suffered the unimaginable fate of a child's worst nightmare. In an ironic and matter-of-fact style, Burcea lets you see, and even feel, the life of Romanian orphan.

Orphans and Abandoned Children in European History

Orphans and Abandoned Children in European History PDF Author: Nicoleta Roman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351628836
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
In a world dominated by poverty, a central characteristic has been the plight of orphans and abandoned children. Over the centuries, State, Church and individuals have all attempted to tackle the issue, but can we trace any change over the course of time when it comes to the welfare system intended for these disadvantaged children and acts of philanthropy? What kind of social policies did States follow and what were the main differences between countries and regions? Drawing on historical evidence across several centuries and a range of European countries, the contributors to this volume provide a transnational overview.

Odyssey of a Romanian Street Child

Odyssey of a Romanian Street Child PDF Author: Cătălin Dobrişan
Publisher: Creation House
ISBN: 9780884199410
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The poignant story of a boy's harrowing life on the streets of Romania...how he survived, escaped and returned to help other street children.

Romania

Romania PDF Author: Roelie Post
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789078829010
Category : Abandoned children
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description


The Roma in Romanian History

The Roma in Romanian History PDF Author: Viorel Achim
Publisher: Central European University Press
ISBN: 6155053936
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
One of the greatest challenges during the enlargement process of the European Union towards the east is how the issue of the Roma or Gypsies is tackled. This ethnic minority group represents a much higher share by numbers, too, in some regions going above 20% of the population. This enormous social and political problem cannot be solved without proper historical studies like this book, the most comprehensive history of Gypsies in Romania. It is based on academic research, synthesizing the entire historical Romanian and foreign literature concerning this topic, and using lot of information from the archives. The main focus is laid on the events of the greatest consequence. Special attention is devoted to aspects linked to the long history of the Gypsies, such as slavery, the process of integration and assimilation into the majority population, as well as the marginalization of Gypsies, which has historic roots. The process of emancipation of Gypsies in the mid-19th century receives due treatment. The deportation of Gypsies to Transnistria during the Antonescu regime, between 1942-1944, is reconstructed in a special chapter. The closing chapters elaborate on the policy toward Gypsies in the decades after the Second World War that explain for the latest developments and for the situation of this population in today's Romania.

Trusting What You’re Told

Trusting What You’re Told PDF Author: Paul L. Harris
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674069846
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
If children were little scientists who learn best through firsthand observations and mini-experiments, as conventional wisdom holds, how would a child discover that the earth is round—never mind conceive of heaven as a place someone might go after death? Overturning both cognitive and commonplace theories about how children learn, Trusting What You’re Told begins by reminding us of a basic truth: Most of what we know we learned from others. Children recognize early on that other people are an excellent source of information. And so they ask questions. But youngsters are also remarkably discriminating as they weigh the responses they elicit. And how much they trust what they are told has a lot to do with their assessment of its source. Trusting What You’re Told opens a window into the moral reasoning of elementary school vegetarians, the preschooler’s ability to distinguish historical narrative from fiction, and the six-year-old’s nuanced stance toward magic: skeptical, while still open to miracles. Paul Harris shares striking cross-cultural findings, too, such as that children in religious communities in rural Central America resemble Bostonian children in being more confident about the existence of germs and oxygen than they are about souls and God. We are biologically designed to learn from one another, Harris demonstrates, and this greediness for explanation marks a key difference between human beings and our primate cousins. Even Kanzi, a genius among bonobos, never uses his keyboard to ask for information: he only asks for treats.

The Effects of Early Social-Emotional and Relationship Experience on the Development of Young Orphanage Children

The Effects of Early Social-Emotional and Relationship Experience on the Development of Young Orphanage Children PDF Author: The St. Petersburg-USA Orphanage Research Team
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444309692
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Undertaken at orphanages in Russia, this study tests the role of early social and emotion experience in the development of children. Children were exposed to either multiple caregivers who performed routine duties in a perfunctory manner with minimal interaction or fewer caregivers who were trained to engage in warm, responsive, and developmentally appropriate interactions during routine care. Engaged and responsive caregivers were associated with substantial improvements in child development and these findings provide a rationale for making similar improvements in other institutions, programs, and organizations.