Foster Care System

The foster care social service system is designed to ameliorate adverse family and environmental conditions that may interfere with typical child development. Currently, the system provides both interim and longstanding out- of- home placement of children whose biological parents have been deemed unable to provide adequate care. The number of children being placed in the foster care system is increasing annually and unfortunately, most of these children have been the victims of repeated abuse and prolonged neglect. Thus, they have not experienced a nurturing, stable environment during the early years of life. Such experiences are critical in the short and long-term development of a child's brain and the ability to subsequently function soundly
Mental illness, behavioural irregularities and emotional internalization were profound in these incidences as neglect has very abstruse consequences on all aspects of child development—brain development delay due to lack of stimulation and proper education, antisocial behaviour by cause of isolation and physical developmental stunts due to insufficient nutrition and medical care. It has been found that 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 and social skills.”( Mackner, 1997) Given that the majority of children in the foster care system are between the ages of one and ten , key developmental stages/periods are rapidly occurring. Neglect, however, greatly disturbs the success of foster care children at these stages. Research has shown that by the time a child reaches the age of six, if he/she has experienced adverse exposures, such as neglect, his/her chances of
According to a Swedish foster care registry, approximately three percent of children in foster care were reported to have endured the loss of a parent during early childhood. Furthermore, it was found that these children who were placed in societal care exemplified “poorer school performance [for children in foster care], compared with the majority population” (Berg, 2014) and that cognitive development was delayed in comparison. Moreover, other forms of traumatic loss including, but not limited to the death of a parent, can pose irrevocable psychological stress and hindrance on the development of a foster child, varying in severity depending on their age at the time of the trauma. Trauma could come from the abrupt removal from a parent’s care/home, relocation and placement in an unfamiliar foster home, or separation from one's siblings. A child's major developmental task during infancy is establishing trust. When an infant experiences the profound loss or separation of/from a parent, the infant is at risk of losing his or her basic sense of trust in adults, which can make foster care seemingly unsuccessful. However, as the child ages, they begin to develop logical thinking abilities and will realize the permanence of such trauma.