Child Development

Knowledge of child development is the foundation for work with children, and therefore is a requirement for all those seeking to protect children. It influences every aspect of a child from physical growth and mental abilities, to how they express emotions, think and behave.

Healthy development takes children through stages, whereby they obtain an increasing number of physical, mental, and emotional skills in order to become independent adults. These stages provide benchmarks for determining if a child is developing normally. Without knowledge of the normal developmental stages of a child, a worker cannot identify developmental delays, assess the impact of abuse, or make recommendations regarding the child’s physical, mental or emotional health. Understanding what a child is capable of allows adults to communicate on their level and provide age-appropriate responses and interventions.

Knowledge of early childhood development and attachment behaviour is particularly important for protection workers. The physical health and care a child experiences as an infant will affect their development into adulthood. A child needs to have experienced a positive attachment by the age of 3 in order to develop cognitively, physically, socially, and psychologically. Healthy attachments come from the close bond a child experiences when provided with the responsive and stable care of at least one adult. In a residential home, children are less likely to receive the amount of individual attention from a permanent caretaker that they require. Children under 12, in particular, benefit more from a kinship, foster or adoption placement where they can experience closer relationships.

Observation of a child’s attachment to caretakers will influence the type of care, permanency plan, and level of support services offered. It can also aid in the identification of abuse.

This section contains information on the importance of child development knowledge, guidance on the ages and stages of children, and attachment theory.

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Early lexical development of children raised in institutional care in Russia

Marina A. Zhukova, Sergey A. Kornilov, Stella N. Tseitlin, Marina B. Eliseeva, Elena A. Vershinina, Rifkat J. Muhamedrahimov, Elena L. Grigorenko - British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 02 Dec 2019

To investigate the early language development of children raised in institutional settings in the Russian Federation, the authors of this study compared a group of children in institutional care to their age‐matched peers raised in biological families, who have never been institutionalized using the Russian version of the CDI.

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Developmental Effects of Parent–Child Separation

Anne Bentley Waddoups, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, and Kendra Strouf - Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 01 Dec 2019

This article reviews the effects on children and youth of parent–child separation due to several of the most common reasons that are responsible for the growth in this family circumstance worldwide.

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Global resource guide on public finance for children in early childhood development

UNICEF, 01 Dec 2019

This resource guide aims to support UNICEF country teams, development partners and governments to deliver at-scale and sustainable results for early childhood development (ECD).

Foster children are at risk for developing problems in social-emotional functioning: A follow-up study at 8 years of age

Heidi Jacobsen, Hans Bugge Bergsund, Tore Wentzel-Larsen, Lars Smith, Vibeke Moe - Children and Youth Services Review, 22 Nov 2019

The first aim of this study was to investigate foster children’s social-emotional functioning (externalizing, internalizing and total problem behavior) reported by female and male caregivers, as well as by teachers, at 8 years of age, as compared with a non-foster group. The second aim was to investigate the predictive power of internalizing and externalizing behavior from age 2 and 3 years.

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Seizing the Moment: Are We Optimising Primary Years’ Learning Opportunities for Australian Children in Care?

Patricia McNamara & Elizabeth Fernandez - Education in Out-of-Home Care, 09 Nov 2019

This Chapter from Education in Out-of-Home Care illustrates that increased resourcing is needed to facilitate the achievement of improved education outcomes for Australian primary school children in out-of-home care (OHC).

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Early family adversity, stability and consistency of institutional care and infant cognitive, language and motor development across the first six months of institutionalization

Joana Baptista, Jay Belsky, Sofia Marques, Joana R. Silva, Carla Martins, Isabel Soares - Infant Behavior and Development, 09 Nov 2019

This study extends research on the effects of institutionalization—by examining the trajectories of cognitive, language and motor development of 64 Portuguese infants and toddlers across the first six months of institutionalization, while determining whether pre-institutional adversities and the stability and consistency of institutional care predict children’s development.

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Mental disorders in children known to child protection services during early childhood

Melissa J. Green, Gabrielle Hindmarsh, Maina Kariuki, Kristin R. Laurens, Amanda L Neil, Ilan Katz, Marilyn Chilvers, Felicity Harris, Vaughan J Carr - The Medical Journal of Australia, 03 Nov 2019

The objective of this study was to examine associations between being the subject of child protection reports in early childhood and diagnoses of mental disorders during middle childhood, by level of service response.

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Adverse Childhood Experiences Associated with Children’s Patterns of Out of Home Placement Over Time and Subsequent Negative Outcomes During Adolescence

Aura Ankita Mishra, Laura M. Schwab-Reese, Lauren V. Murfree - Child & Youth Care Forum, 04 Oct 2019

Objectives of this study were twofold. To identify combinations of adverse childhood experiences that are associated with out of home placement (OOHP)—based on both duration of OOHP and change in actual placement during each time point, among welfare involved youth. The second objective was to understand long-term negative outcomes during adolescence that are associated with greater placement instability.

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Association of Foster Care and its Duration with Clinical Symptoms and Impairment: Foster Care versus Non-Foster Care Comparisons with Spanish Children

Ignasi Navarro-Soria, Mateu Servera, G. Leonard Burns - Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29 Sep 2019

The objective of this study was to determine if Spanish foster care children and Spanish non-foster children differ on sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), ADHD-inattention (IN), ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), limited prosocial emotions (LPE), anxiety, depression, social and academic impairment measures and if the duration of foster care predicts a reduction in symptom and impairment differences between foster and non-foster care children.

Utilising genetically informed research designs to better understand family processes and child development: implications for adoption and foster care focused interventions

Ruth Sellers, Amelia Smith, Leslie D Leve, Elizabeth Nixon, Jackie Cassell, Gordon Harold - Adoption & Fostering, 26 Sep 2019

This article summarises how genetically informed research designs can help disentangle genetic from environmental processes underlying psychopathology outcomes for children, and how this evidence can provide improved insights into the development of more effective preventive intervention targets for adoptive and foster families.

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