A CASE STUDY OF DEVELOPMENTAL RETARDATION CAUSED BY EARLY DEPRIVED ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

This study consisted of a sister and a brother who were rescued from parents' maltreatment in 1972 at the age of 6 and 5 respectively. They both were 82 cm in height and 8.5 kg in weight, and could not walk but crawled. As for speech, the sister uttered only two words and the brother none. They were observed, mentally and physically, as if they were in the developmental level of a year and half at best. As a result of investigation it was considered that this severe case of developmental retardation was due to the complex factors of deprivation such as maternal, cultural, language, and nutritional. The characteristics of this developmental retardation case were as folllows:
1) The sister and the brother had a close contact with the other siblings but almost no interaction with adults.
2) No attachments to adults were found.
3) Genetic and organic loads were not considered to be the main cause of retardation.
4) Negative elements which had hindered the development of sensory-motor intelligence were not dominant.
Since the children were rescued and taken to the protective nursery school, our projective team had been investigating the remedial proceses of the children's development by periodical testing and measurement in terms of physical, cognitive, language, and socioemotional development in comparison with the control group children of the same nursery school. Remedial education and follow-up study have been done for hae sake of the children's recovery by the analysis of testing results and inferences baseds on the information from antecedent researches. At this moment the findings might be temporarily summarized as follows:
1)As for Physical development, a high level of plasticity is preserved, and it is recognized that gradual overtaking of the standard of normal development is confirmed.
2)As for social development, interpersonal relations and their affective interaction are now smooth. Generally, a proper development has been confirmed although there is still immature and asocial tendency in the boy's behavior patterns.
3)As for emotional development, a weak self assertion, defensiveness, and dependency are the children's characteristics. These features might have stemmed from the overprotective treatment at the nursery school itself.
4)As for language development, there is a constant delay of 3-3.5 years in comparison with chronological age in PLA of ITPA. It seems that it is impossible for them to overtake the chronological standard. The main difficulties are found in what is called internal language or domain of formal language.
5)As for cognitive development, at one time IQ was restored to the level of 80-90, but after that, a constant decrease has been observed. This is mainly because the task of intelligence test requires more verbal and abstract abilities for problem solving according to chronological development. A low capacity in STM is observed but task of SPM is well performed, and social competence is considered to be better than expected. as for their daily life it seems there is no problem.
After summarizing the above findings the following hypotheses might be proposed:
Hypothesis I: Maturation function has a considerably high plasticity and a self control function per se. A complete lack of proper input to the organism to stimulate the maturation processes may cause a stagnation in the development. but the potentiality of the development may be preserved in the state of functional hibernation. If this is true, a developmental retardation caused by lack of input from the environment, and a deviated development caused by improper input should be clearly diferentiated.