While studies of children who have suffered severe deprivation are generally unpleasant, they provide valuable insight into the impact that environmental experiences have on the development of the individual. There is much evidence to suggest that early learning environments literally shape the developing brain (Nelson, 1999).
Some studies have involved mistreated children who, tragically, have spent their first years in cupboards, attics and other restricted environments. When first discovered, these children are usually mute, retarded and emotionally damaged.
Some suffer from deprivation dwarfism, a condition characterised by stunted physical growth associated with stress, isolation or general deprivation. Efforts to teach such severely deprived children to speak and behave normally rarely succeed.
Case Study: ‘Closet child’ now with loving parents:
Becky’s story began to unfold when the Sheriff’s Department responded to a tip like hundreds of others. They found Becky in urine-soaked clothes, asleep on a hard cot in her parents’ bedroom.
‘She was almost like an animal,’ one of the deputies reported. Her world then was the bedroom and its closet, in which she was kept for untold hours. Now Becky lives in a spacious foster home.
Since Becky’s rescue, she has gained 12 pounds and grown 6 inches. But she is still a mite, for she weighed only 24 pounds and stood only 32 inches tall last April.
When she was found, Becky couldn’t even crawl; now she walks. Then, she knew only a few words – now she speaks in sentences. She is, except for the hurt in her eyes, almost like any toddler.
But Rebecca is no toddler. She is nine years old and her paediatrician says she may never catch up.
Information gathered from:
Van Lersel et al. (2005) Nelson Psychology, Thomson Nelson, pg. 114
Questions:
• If most of our development is due to nature, why didn’t Becky go through the normal stages of development?
• What possible explanations could there be for why Becky’s development hasn’t caught up?
Answer the above question by responding to this post – you may wish to do some additional research regarding the critical and sensitive period.
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17 comments:
In this case, I believe Becky didn't matture properly because she was deprived the chance. Her genes inside her were ready to make her grow up and become who she was meant to be, but she was then deprived that oppurtunity to become who she was meant to be. i hope that makes sense, it made sense in my head.
peta 10L
Becky wouldn't have gone through 'normal' stages of development, because she learned some characteristics from her parents, and from people around her. Her parents probibly didn't use many words around her, and she might not have been able to accocitate words with objects. And as her living areas were fairly small, crawling would have been just as effective as walking.
Hetr development won't catch up, because at critical points in her developement, Becky would have trouble learning things that babies and small children learn from things around them. She has been in the same living conditions and area for much of her life, so she did not develop all aspects that most other children would
Ben P
10R
Becky's story is so hard to read. To think that the people who created her were so cruel to her and treated her the way they did. I don't believe we are formed by nature so this story (if it can be called that) supports my opinion of nurture and our environment makes us the people we are. I don't know why she didn;t fo through the normal stages of development. Perhaps it was because her mother drank or did drugs while Becky was in her womb. Or perhaps just the small space she lived in and the traumatic experience she had lived through.
As for why her develpment hasn't caught up, I don't know. But having the parents she obviously had, they must have had problems. Addictions perhaps who knows. But because of her experiences she is not a normal child and I don't believe she will be.
Sarah 10J
I don't think that some developmental stages are due to nature. Things such as language need to be taught to us. We can be born from one nationality background and learn to speak a totally different language. Just because in our nature we are one nationality doesn't mean that we will automatically be able to speak that language.
In this case Becky’s development might not have caught up yet as she simply missed those important developmental stages when she was younger. Due to this it may take longer and be harder to catch up.
Elspeth 10M
According to William Greenough (2001, p. 18), "in the language of developmental neurobiology, a critical period is a point in development, when an event must occur if development is to proceed normally. A sensitive period is a point in development when development is optimal if an event occurs, but the constraints are less."
To answer the first question you need to know exactly what is meant by Nature... Is it the course of pre determined events that was going to happen from the start of history? or is it only in regards to our genetical compisition and what we have inherited from our parents? If it is the first option than the simple reason Becky did not go through the normal stages of development was because she was never going to in the first place, that's just the way it was going to occur. In regards to the second option it is hard to say; yet it could be that her parents genetics would make them treat their child that way (pre desposed to mental illness etc - although that is definately no excuse for this kind of treatment)
From the quote it can be seen that Becky did not go through the normal stages of development because she has missed out on the critical period of growth. Because she was so deprived in these early years of love, attention and social interaction etc it becomes almost impossible to learn this at an older age. She has also missed out on the sensitive period of development, but this is not as important in development so she will be able to catch up on some things such as speech although many things will remain under-developed.
- Matt 10F
Maybe Becky didn’t go through the normal stages of development because she had no stimulus to encourage her learning and growth. If she wasn’t exposed to speech and writing, etc. then she can’t be expected to know how to speak normally, even if she is nine. She would have needed people to help her with forming the right sounds and putting words together in sentences and forming her basic knowledge of English (or whatever her language is).
I think it’s the same with walking/crawling/movement. I’m pretty sure that we ALL learnt to walk with the help of our parents or someone else that can walk. They held our hands and helped us move our legs. But I don’t think Becky would have had that help and if she was kept in a closet - there was nothing to help her learn and she wouldn’t have known any different anyway.
Was she fed good meals?
If she wasn’t, that would have definitely affected her growth and maybe even her learning because she might not have had the energy to do anything but stay alive?
Maddy E ~ 10D
These stories are extremely disturbing, how could a parent do this to their own child? It's just horrible.
If most of our development is due to nature, Becky would still need some form of nurture in her life to develop normally. As the question ask's "If most ...." than that leaves some room for nurture to take it's course. I think that even if our development is more due to nature, the part that nurture plays is equally important if not more. According to Mazlow's Heirachy of needs, the 3rd most important aspect is social needs, eg. love, belonging and affection. It's clear that Becky and most of these children grew up without or with very little of these things.
There are quite a few explanations as to why Becky's development hasn't caught up. She spent her entire critical and sensitive period locked away, "Infancy is a time of extreme dependence on adults. Many psychological activities are just beginning- language, symbolic thought, sensorimotor coordination, and social learning." (Pagewise, 2002) Once this period is gone, the other stages of life are very hard if not impossible to catch up on. Even in Piaget's stages of development, the stages from birth to 7 years are where the child learns the most and with learning these things the child cannot progress to the next stages.
Heidi 10F
This certainly is a very sad case study, though a lot can be learnt from it and examples like this.
This case study doesn't necessarily disprove the theory that a large portion of development is nurture based.
Development is partially and perhaps even for the most part based on nature. This having been said it is possible that environmental stimulus is required to help a child achieve their predetermined skills that nature gave them.
This environmental stimulus could if you would 'kick start' their development. If this is the case it could be an evolutionary advantage. The reason for this been it would prevent one from developing skills one doesn't need, thereby allowing one to focus on the skills necessary for survival.
The child will quite possible never catch up because it has missed key developmental periods that are required for the formation of a healthy individual.
This having been said it doesn't mean a child in this circumstance will never learn certain concepts. A child with sever childhood deprivation of stimulus can occasionally recover to the stage where it can interact with people, albeit in a manner which wouldn't reflet that of a fully developed child.
This is a very sad study and I'm sure everyone hopes the child in the study can recover as much of her lost development as possible.
Angus, 10K
Nature is to be cultivated by nurture. Depending on the nurturing of a child their nature can either be encouraged or dismissed. Nature is a powerful biological force that begins in the womb although this is a sensitive period of the child's growth and therefore the nurturing of the child plays a major role in the outcome of the child. The child is also easily influenced at early ages, as according to Bandura's social learning theory, children learn by observing the role models with whom we identify. They act upon imitation. If the early child was nurtured alone, undernourished and not looked after, the child will have no one to role model on and not know any better therfore stunting her growth.
In the case of Becky, being treated like an animal is the way she was brought up and doesn't acknowledge any better therefore she would believe that she is what she was brought up to be...an animal. Because Becky was at a very young and at a critical period in her life's growing phases she could not identify any better.
Becky's development has not caught up possibly because she was already harmed at the critical age of growth and therefore it is hard to take a sudden change if at the early stages of her life was damagingly mentally stunted.
Becky was not taught to grow and learn at a critical time of her life.
Alka 10J
Becky did not go through the normal stages of development due to the fact she had not experience the same love and care a 'ordinary' child would go through. If there is no effort to raise and assist the child in learning (e.g. reading to them, talking to them, interaction with the environment/people), then it is likely that they will not go through the normal stages of development.
Some possible explanations for Becky’s dwarfism are her isolation or deprivation of a loving family. In addition, the environment that she was exposed to was only a bedroom, closet and parents who did not fulfil their responsibilities. When she was found, Becky couldn’t even crawl and only knew a few words. This could have occurred because she was not encouraged by her biological parents to develop that skill. Whereas the words she knew could have been learnt by hearing the parents speak whilst in captivity.
Although there is not enough information, Becky could have been physically abused whilst under the care of her parents. This might be a reason why she did not go through the normal development stages as the parents ‘hit’ her. Thus she was afraid and did not attempt to develop any further to avoid another beating.
Jonathan 10S
This can be explained using Piaget's theory of development
She missed out on the love needed to developed. She might have had the sufficient nutrients needed to grow, but she was psychologically harmed, which is just as important in the development of a human being
She cant catch up because she missed her growth areas where she had to be treated right in order to develop.
Again also contributing to not "catching up" is the psychology harm inflicted on her.
James M 10L
i guess the responce to this is that, there was both nature and nurture that played into this role. you cant really expect Becky to grow up and live normally as everyone else, if she hasnt experience anything else. life is all about experiences and learning and growing from them. i guess it shows its not al about nature, how your grow up and how you developed plays a very important role as well.
Anthony
Deprivation led to her stunted growth and lack of development. Also there was no stimilus from her to learn from. Therefore brain development was hindered severly.
The most probable reason that she cannot catch up is because her brain development has been so hindered that the age of nine she doing things a 4-5 yr old can easily do.
Sagar
Contrary to the opinion mostly shared as of far, you cannot put in big black letter "this is obviously nurture". There are a number of things that we do not know, there could be a genetic efficiency, perhaps there was no way that Becky would have grown normally anyway. Had she lived in a "loving, caring and spacious enviroment, who is to say that she would still not be the same as she is now? If we were to see pictures, to see bone structure, could we really just say this is nurture pure and true?
I believe nurture has a play in things, but nature has a bigger part, nature is our brain structure, how we grow, this one example that seems to link so truely to nurture is one example of a thousand. There are countless better more solid accounts of children that are deprived, ones that more facts are known about.
For the simple fact that we do not know enough about this case, and many other cases of depraved children GROWING properly, I believe it is fair to dismiss this case, as we do not know what other factors may have caused Becky's stunted growth.
-Duncan Stewart, 10K
Trying to keep this short, I’ll say that Becky most likely didn’t receive enough stimuli in the ‘sensitive period’ of her life, (from birth to the age of 6 or 7).
Without stimulus in the sensitive periods, the synapses in Broca’s area and other areas of the brain for language production waste away.
It’s like good seed grown in bad soil.
Oh, and does anyone remember what Miss O’Neill said about twins who were kept under similarly deprived situations and developed their own language? Any thoughts on that?
...I sometimes worry I'll be a horrible mother and not speak to my child enough to teach them any language...
Krysia Choros 10S
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_periods
It is horrible what they did to poor Becky! Any experience like that must leave a mark, have some effect on a child's growth, perception, brain and learning. That kind of nurture would definitively have an effect on the nature of the child.
Development has a lot to do with nature and nurture. Firstly Becky was very young when she was locked up. She would have no idea who she naturally was. She would have barely seen her parents so there would have been no example for her. A closet does not make a good learning environment because there is nothing for her experience. The darkness would have definitely driven her insane. Basically her environment at such a vulnerable age would have slowed down proper development. It will take time to make up for what she had mist.
Alina 10M
Duncan, I think you are too quick to dismiss this as an anomaly; what if she wasn't the only case of a deprived child whose growth was stunted? I'm sure that would have been noted at some point. At the same time, I do believe that further information is needed - perhaps a family tree of genetic disorders, and other situations to the like.
Certainly, nature is our brain structure, and a good foundation is the most important thing, and I stress that to all you nurture believers, but I think this situation shows what happens when deprived of nurture, or when the nurture is significantly negative. In this case I see the nurture to be basic things such as food and sustenance, as well as education, and perhaps love, although Becky's emotional maturity is not discussed in this topic.
Because it is not referred to, what do you think Becky's emotional maturity would be like, considering her first years were seemingly deprived of love?
Krysia, 10S
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