5.5: What Effect Does Neglect Have on Children?

What Effects Does Neglect Have on Children?

Neglect affects children in different ways, depending upon the type of neglect, duration and extreme of neglect, and the developmental level and age of the child. Neglect is not an isolated incident but is ongoing and often deeply seeded. Neglect usually involves the entire family. The children’s Bureau conducted a study of child maltreatment reports in 2007; neglect affected the largest number of children, 59%.

Infancy and early childhood

Children neglected during infancy and early childhood may develop Nonorganic Failure to Thrive Syndrome (NFTT). Although once considered in the normal range, these children fall below the 5th percentile in weight and sometimes in height, meaning that 95% of babies their age weigh more than they do. These children also demonstrate delay in psychomotor development. NFTT may be caused by inexperienced parents not knowing how to properly feed their baby, or not having enough money for formula and therefore diluting the formula too much. It may be caused by feelings of hostility or ambivalence toward the infant; infants pick up on this. Lack of family support, lack of knowledge, and lack of communication often add to the risk factors. Infants who are neglected may also show poor muscle tone or the inability to support their own body weight (as toddlers). They may have little confidence in their environment, or in their needs being met. They may be withdrawn, lack smiling and babble noises, and be unwilling to make eye contact. They may show signs of being left to lay in their crib for hours on end, including rashes and infections from lying in their own bodily waste.

The practice of “serve and return” begins at birth. It literally shapes the architecture of the brain when the child reacts to something (serve) and the parent notices and responds (return). When babies aren’t noticed, they become stressed. The following has been discovered and reported by Harvard University’s Center of the Developing Child:

Occasional Inattention may present some benefits to helping the child learn to adjust and self-soothe; there is no harm in occasional inattention, as long as it is offset with attention.

Chronic Under-Stimulation refers to less interaction than is needed by a child with others. This will have some delay effects on the child’s development in multiple areas.

Severe Neglect refers to not being physically cared for or interacted with. Severe neglect may lead to severe results in lack of development physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally. It may also lead to failure to thrive. Severe neglect is often found in institutional settings, such as those described earlier in this text which occurred in Romania; unfortunately, severe neglect has occasionally been found in homes throughout the United States. (Harvard University Center of the Developing Child)

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Young children

Young children who have been neglected may show delay in motor skills, language development, social emotional development, attention span, ability to follow more than one step commands, poor skin clarity, distended stomach, emancipated limbs, etc. These children may lack emotional stimulation and appear with flat affect or extreme passivity. When they go to school, staff and peers are likely to notice and complain that they are dirty, smell, and don’t get along well with others. Children who have been neglected are never sure what they can depend upon. They tend to turn internally and depend only upon themselves. They have generally not been taught to develop an internal set of standards to do “what is right"; they respond to external stimuli of doing what they need to survive.

Adolescents

When adolescents are neglected, they typically do not stick around. If their needs are not being met, they are likely to strike out on their own, run away, or start their own family to escape their situation. This often just perpetuates the cycle of neglect.