Cognitive deprivation. Deprivation and ways to identify it

12.02.2024

It has long been shown that human development proceeds more harmoniously in conditions of constant communication with the external objective world. The need for new impressions, according to L.I. Bozhovich, is one of the leading ones in the mental development of an infant and in the third to fifth week of life is the basis for the formation of the need to communicate with loved ones.

If for any reason there are obstacles to interacting with the environment, then the person suffers from a lack of incentives. In 1956, psychologists at McGill University (Canada] conducted a study of the consequences of isolation from the environment - “sensory isolation". In the experiment, volunteers were protected from external influences by placing them in a special chamber, maximally isolated from the environment. The subjects were unable to withstand more 2-3 days in these conditions, they complained about visions and strange sounds (hallucinations), demanded to let them out.The very first and main conclusion of the experiment is that the human body, for its balance, needs a constant influx of information from the external environment.

However, this behavior of the subjects is not only a consequence of isolation. J. Godefroy, describing these experiments, shows the conditions of isolation (lying position, clutches on the hands, tinted glasses, the constant hum of the air conditioner motor), which in themselves, such as an unnatural position, an obsessive irritating noise, could cause a bright and unpleasant to the point of unbearability a feeling of isolation with all the ensuing consequences.

Isolation of a person from the outside world has varying degrees of severity: from extreme to partial. The extreme degree described by J. A. Komensky, C. Linnaeus, A. Robert, R. Zing and others, occurs in nature in the so-called “wolf” and “feral” children. Scientists have suggested that with extreme isolation from the external environment for a long period, basic mental needs that are not fully satisfied will not develop and will remain at the very original rudimentary level.

In the context of our problem, to determine the degree of violation of the natural biosocial conditions of life and activity, we will use J. Bowlby’s terms “total deprivation” and “partial deprivation”. Complete deprivation corresponds to the developmental conditions of children in an orphanage, from birth or from early childhood (up to three years) deprived of the opportunity to interact with loved ones and having no contact with relatives. R. Spitz called this developmental situation “hospitalism”, J. Langmeyer and Z. Matejcek, using the terminology of D. Gevirts, is “privation”.

To determine the partial degree of isolation in the form of situations in which children for a long time, for example, due to illness or remoteness of residence from populated areas, are forced to live isolated from society, J. Bowlby uses the concept of “partial deprivation”, which covers those developmental situations in which in which the connections between the mother (relatives] and the child are not completely interrupted, but at the same time their relationships are impoverished and unsatisfactory. G. Harlow [Quoted from: 54] when denoting these conditions of development uses the term “hidden” or “masked” deprivation, distinguishing between impaired and insufficient relationships between mother and child.Partial deprivation is the developmental conditions for those pupils of an orphanage or other public institution who have the opportunity to spend some time in the family or with people close to them, as well as children and adolescents from asocial families.

In recent years, in the study of the problems of manifestations and consequences of sensory deprivation (isolation), an experimental approach has been developed, which has made it possible to find an answer to a number of questions regarding the early and late manifestations of experiences of isolation (deprivation), the critical age for the consequences of a situation of deprivation, the relationship between sensory and social deprivation etc.

Experimental studies with animals have made a valuable contribution to solving the problem of the relationship between innate and acquired behavior in humans and animals in conditions isolated from the external environment. Vyrzhikovsky and Moyorov [Cit. according to: 54], keeping puppies in isolation, they limited the flow of irritants to them. Coming out of the cage, the puppies turned out to be fearful and susceptible to external inhibition. Interesting are the experiments of D. Hebb and his colleagues, in which one-month-old Scottish terriers were kept for 7-10 months in an environment with a limited influx of irritants from the external environment. The puppies in the darkened box felt well and were active, in contrast to the control adult dogs, which in the cage showed lethargy, inactivity and were characterized by developmental disorders. Subsequent observations of Scottish Terrier puppies in a normal environment showed pronounced and long-lasting effects of early isolation. The dogs exhibited learning disabilities, emotional immaturity, and hyperactivity. Their behavior was characterized by playfulness, paroxysmal running, self-aggression and was accompanied by alarming howls and grumbling.

Researchers have suggested the presence of developmental delay in deprived dogs due to the lack of sufficient opportunity at an early age to create perceptual schemes into which new stimuli could be included and behavior appropriate to the conditions could be built against this background. In other experiments, Nissen and his colleagues restricted tactile and manipulative experiences to a young chimpanzee for 431 weeks by placing his limbs in cardboard cylinders. After the removal of the cylinders, the chimpanzees showed impairments in distinguishing irritated points of the body for four months, a slowdown in motor acts, and an absence of climbing actions.

An important contribution to the development of knowledge about sensory mental deprivation was made by large studies from the laboratory of the University of California (D. Krech, M. Rosenzweig, E. Bennett, M. Diamond]. Rats (of the same type, age and sex] were divided into two groups. The first was kept with 25th to 105th day after the cessation of maternal feeding in an enriched environment (a spacious cage with stairs, carousels, boxes, labyrinths), the second - in an impoverished environment of isolated cages with a minimum of sensory support, without the ability to see or touch another animal. The experiments observed the anatomical and biochemical consequences of various early experiences. It turned out that there were pronounced changes in the weight of the cerebral cortex in rats. The weight of the cortex was approximately 4% higher in animals from an enriched environment than in deprived animals, while the cerebral cortex had greater gray matter thickness and larger capillary diameter.The largest differences were observed in the visual region (6%). Subsequent experiments showed that depending on different sensory enrichment, the weight of different brain regions could be changed. Biochemical studies revealed an increase in the activity of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme and cholinesterase enzyme in the cerebral cortex of animals from an enriched environment.

Subjecting children, like young animals, to such research is unacceptable. Hebb's group, Mendelsohn and Foley from Harvard University conducted a study on volunteers. When limiting the access of signals to student volunteers, they observed the following consequences of isolation: difficulty concentrating, disorders in the direction of thinking, hijacking of thinking by fantasies and daydreams, disorders of time orientation, physical illusions and deception, anxiety and the need for activity, headaches, pain in back, back of the head, in the eyes, delusions, hallucinations, anxiety and fear, claustrophobic complaints [Ibid].

Today, there is no controversy about the scientific fact indicating that for normal maturation of the brain in early ontogenesis, external stimulation of the body is necessary. N.M. Shchelovanov and his colleagues showed that in areas of the brain that do not receive a sufficient portion of stimuli, the process of normal development is inhibited; in extreme cases, the latter stops and the nervous tissue atrophies. N.M. Shchelovanov wrote that a child’s presence in conditions of sensory deficiency entails a slowdown and lag in the development of all aspects of the psyche. Vivid evidence of this is provided by blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing children, who often have disorders of cognitive and other aspects of the psyche. And the emotional development of a child is closely related to external influences on the child’s body, and their limitation inhibits the emergence of positive emotions.

Manifestations of sensory deficiency are also typical for children from disadvantaged families, as well as those raised outside it. The impoverishment of the environment in “families at risk”, the limitation of the flow of information due to the lack of diverse and deep contacts with the outside world in the conditions of upbringing in an orphanage and in a boarding school can lead to sensory and cognitive mental deprivation.

The main manifestations of sensory deprivation are slowing down and disorganization of the development of mental processes, a delay in the formation of orienting-exploratory behavior, and in extreme cases, dysontogenetic development. Apathy and low levels of activity in children under conditions of deprivation are also explained by a lack of global external stimulation.

An inevitable consequence of sensory deprivation is cognitive mental deprivation in the form of a decrease in cognitive interests and capabilities, as well as difficulties in understanding and anticipating events (in other words, disharmony of intellectual development), and violations of behavioral regulation.

Our study of deprived adolescents showed that, unlike their peers from families, they have a low level and below average level of intellectual potential development. The following is a picture of the development of the diverse intellectual capabilities of adolescents, obtained using the test of the structure of intelligence.

Verbal intelligence. Adolescents have below average and low abilities to operate words as signals and symbols (inductive speech thinking]. The ability to generalize and abstraction in a quarter of adolescents is at the average level of development, half of adolescents have below average abilities, the rest have low abilities for this type of mental activity Combinatorial abilities are even less developed in adolescents. Thus, one second of adolescents demonstrates levels below average, almost a third of adolescents have a low level, the rest have an average level. The average level of development of the ability to make judgments and generalize characterizes a tenth of adolescents, the rest - a level below average and low (more often) development of abilities.

Practical mathematical thinking and the process of programming in adolescents has an even lower development than verbal development. When solving arithmetic problems, nine out of ten teenagers demonstrate low capabilities, the rest demonstrate below average capabilities. A similar development has theoretical inductive thinking - the ability to operate with numbers. Only in isolated cases do students demonstrate an average level of development of the programming process.

Constructive abilities of a theoretical and practical nature, i.e. visual-figurative thinking, the ability to solve geometric problems, spatial representation, as well as the ability not only to operate with spatial images, but also to generalize their relationships more, in comparison with the development of mathematical abilities and the programming process, formed in adolescents raised outside the family. Among them there are fewer adolescents with low rates of development of this ability; there are those whose development of combinatorial abilities and spatial imagination reaches average and above average levels of development.

Mnemonic abilities, reflecting the ability of adolescents to memorize material, preserve it, logically comprehend and reproduce it, in most cases have a low level of development. Some teenagers have a below-average and average level of development of mnemonic abilities.

Thus, in a situation of sensory isolation or upbringing under conditions of deprivation, the mental state is characterized by disharmony of its sensory and cognitive components.

Deprivation in psychology is a mental state caused by the inability to provide basic life needs and needs (sleep, food, housing, communication, sexual relations, etc.), or the loss of benefits familiar to the individual. In this article we will get acquainted with the concept of “deprivation” in psychology and its main types. In addition, at the end of the article we will learn how this phenomenon manifests itself and how to deal with it.

Definition

In psychology, deprivation is loss or deprivation. This concept comes from the English term “Deprivation”, which has a strong negative meaning and negative orientation, carrying not just a loss, but precisely the deprivation of something vital.

In other words, in psychology, deprivation is a lack of sensory stimuli and social motives, deprivation of living sensations, social contacts and natural impressions. This concept, from the point of view of its content-psychological meaning, is related to the term “frustration”. Compared to the frustration reaction, the deprived state is more severe, painful and often even destructive to the personality. It is determined by the maximum level of rigidity and consistency. In all the variety of life situations, completely different needs may be deprived.

The study of various aspects and forms of mental development in unfavorable conditions is carried out by such a science as special psychology. Deprivation is one of the factors of disturbances in human development, which is the object of this science. In addition, the special scientific interest of special psychology is associated with the so-called “margin of safety” of development, that is, the stability of the psyche during the implementation of the main functions of reflecting the surrounding world. The problem of deprivation in special psychology is an integral part of the study of that very “margin of safety”.

Kinds

Most often, these types of deprivation are distinguished in psychology: sensory (also stimulus), cognitive, emotional and social. Thus, deprived states are classified depending on the unmet need.

Sensory deprivation in psychology is a reduced number of sensory motives or their limited variability. It is often called an “impoverished environment,” that is, an environment in which an individual does not receive the amount of visual, tactile, sound and other stimuli that is necessary for normal life. Such an environment can accompany a person from childhood or develop in everyday adult life.

Cognitive deprivation, or, as it is also called, deprivation of meanings, can arise due to the too changeable and chaotic structure of the external world, which is difficult to comprehend and predict, due to the lack of ordering and specificity. Another name for cognitive deprivation is informational. It prevents the formation of a socially adequate perception of the surrounding reality in the individual’s worldview. Without receiving the necessary ideas about the connections between events and objects, a person creates “false connections”, on the basis of which he forms erroneous beliefs.

Emotional deprivation in psychology is a lack of opportunity to establish intimate-emotional relationships with another person, or the collapse of a previously created connection. A person can encounter this type of deprivation at any age. In relation to children, the term “maternal deprivation” is used, expressing the importance of the child’s emotional connection with his mother, the absence or deficiency of which can lead to serious psychological disorders. Lack of communication with the father is called “paternal deprivation”.

Social deprivation, which is also called identity deprivation, consists in the inability of an individual to acquire an independent social role. Children in orphanages, pensioners, people isolated from society, and so on are highly susceptible to this type of deprivation.

In everyday life, types of deprivation occur in synthesis with each other. In addition to the listed types, there are others. For example, motor deprivation occurs in those who, due to severe injury or illness, are faced with restrictions in movement. Despite the fact that this condition is not psychological, it has a strong impact on the individual’s psyche.

Forms

Almost always, a person under restrictions is prone to aggression, which can be directed both at others and at himself. This leads to suicide attempts and auto-aggression, expressed in bad habits and somatic diseases.

Struggle

To completely get rid of the relative form of the described condition, you need to discover and eliminate its true causes. This can be done through long-term work with a psychologist. It is much more difficult to cope with the absolute form of deprivation - it is eliminated only by providing a person with those benefits in which he will experience a deficit, or by helping him achieve them independently.

In addition, there are ways to temporarily turn off deprivation mechanisms. The development of aggression caused by deprivation can be muffled through intense physical activity. The consequences of motor and sensory deprivation are compensated by creative activity. With maternal deprivation, things are more serious. Moreover, the earlier a person experienced these restrictions, the stronger the negative consequences from them will be.

Conclusion

Today we found out what deprivation is and looked at its main types that take place in the modern world. According to the scientific dictionary, deprivation in psychology is a mental state that occurs when certain human needs are not satisfied for a long time.

Cognitive deprivation is understood as a lack of information, as well as its chaotic nature, variability, disorder, which prevents the construction of adequate models of the surrounding world and, therefore, the ability to act productively in it, and also causes a number of certain psychological phenomena.

A lack of information in professional activities leads to mistakes and prevents productive decision-making.

In everyday life, a lack of information not only causes boredom, but also leads to more serious consequences, such as drawing false conclusions about current events or people around us.

Even correct, but insufficiently complete information often does not make it possible to build an objective picture of the situation. The fact is that a person interprets it in accordance with his own personality characteristics, endows it with his own meanings, views it through the prism of personal interest, which often results in false beliefs and assessments, which, in turn, lead to people misunderstanding each other. The lack of adequate information is considered one of the main causes of conflicts in both personal and professional communication.

The influence of information hunger on the psyche is especially pronounced in extreme operating conditions.

Information is conventionally divided into three types:

1) personal, related to one’s own affairs, as well as family or friendly relations;
2) special, having value within certain social groups (for example, professional);
3) mass, transmitted by the media.

In certain conditions of life and activity - at Antarctic stations, in space, on submarines, etc. - people often experience a lack of information of various types. Communication with the “mainland”, as a rule, is limited to certain communication sessions, including laconic business messages.

“As the duration of a submarine’s voyage increases, sailors’ need for information about events at home and in the world, about relatives, etc. increases... Sailors were especially sensitive to “nudges” from their comrades about the infidelity of their wives. The sailors could not get rid of the thoughts that their relatives were dying... and some imagined pictures of their girlfriends and wives spending time with their lovers. At the same time, a state of anxiety and depression developed, and sleep was disturbed. Performance decreased, attention deteriorated and vigilance was lost. In some cases it was necessary to resort to drug treatment. When people received information they were interested in, even negative information (denial of admission to an educational institution, improvement of living conditions, even when informed that a girl was friends with another), all neurotic phenomena disappeared completely or were mitigated.”

The subjects who participated in the deaf chamber experiments noted in their reports that they really wanted to know how close relatives and friends lived, what events were happening in the world, and even such seemingly trifles as the weather outside.

Cognitive deprivation can also be more specific.

Possible in interpersonal communication information exhaustion partners.

In conditions of constant contact, people may cease to be interesting to each other. This phenomenon is highlighted especially clearly in the same special, extreme conditions of life and activity.

V.I. Lebedev describes the peculiarities of communication between people in closed conditions of work on a submarine: at first, when the crew is formed, the sailors have a desire to get to know each other better, information is exchanged - mainly regarding biographical data; then communication takes on a wider range, events on the ship and in the world, shore leave, movies and TV shows watched, books read, sports news, etc. are jointly discussed; Gradually, sailors begin to exchange information with each other less and less, and interest in communication decreases.
Travelers crossing the ocean in small groups also write in their diaries and reports that after some time after the start of the trip, the interest of the participants in each other decreases significantly. Everyone had already told everything they could and wanted about themselves in the first days. What to talk about?

In conditions of isolation, some groups are developing ways to combat information hunger. For example, reading popular lectures by expedition specialists. There is also a spontaneous replacement of communication partners, which usually begins to occur after three months from the start of the expedition.

In modern everyday life, over-indulgence in the Internet can also be considered in some cases as a way to overcome cognitive deprivation, especially for individuals who do not have the opportunity to obtain information in any other way.

Cognitive deprivation is closely related to sensory deprivation and has much in common with it both in terms of the causes of its occurrence and in terms of the consequences caused, general and individual.

The term "cognitive deprivation" is used to describe information hunger. In addition, this term is often used to characterize the chaos and variability of information, which makes it difficult to build an adequate model of the human environment. Such obstacles to productive interaction with the outside world can cause many different psychological disorders. The lack of necessary information in the professional field can cause various mistakes, which will affect the achievement of your goals. If we consider information hunger in everyday life, we can say that cognitive deprivation can become a “false link” in the logical chain of perception of various events occurring in a person’s life.

Cognitive deprivation is understood as a lack of information

To begin with, you should pay attention to the fact that truthful, but insufficiently detailed information received by a person can lead to the creation of an incorrect picture of the world around him. The reason for the development of this situation is explained by the fact that it is human nature to interpret various events based on their own personal qualities. That is why all incoming information is viewed through the lens of personal interests, which leads to a subjective assessment of various facts. Such features of human perception are the main reason for the development of misunderstandings between people.

According to experts, a lack of adequate analysis of incoming information can cause both personal conflicts and professional troubles.

According to psychologists, information deprivation is most pronounced in extreme situations. Experts divide the information a person receives from the environment into three conditional groups:

Personal– having a close relationship with a specific individual, his relatives or close friends.
Special– information that has a certain meaning within a social group.
Mass- spread through the media.

Examples of cognitive deprivation

Information hunger is clearly manifested in certain living conditions. Employees of space and Antarctic stations, as well as crews of cruise ships, experience a pronounced hunger for information. Since communication with the “big” world has certain restrictions and implies only a professional conversation, a person feels an ever-increasing need to obtain various information.

Many people who are away from their family perceive various events negatively. Their minds are often overwhelmed by thoughts about possible adultery, the death of close relatives and other problems. The presence of negative thoughts that are not supported by evidence leads to decreased activity, anxiety, depression and insomnia. Under the influence of their own feelings, people begin to experience problems concentrating, which significantly reduces productivity.

Lack of information in professional activities leads to mistakes and interferes with making productive decisions

According to published data, in extreme conditions, information hunger can lead to the development of mental disorders requiring therapeutic intervention. Obtaining information of interest (even of a negative nature) makes it possible to partially eliminate neurotic symptoms, and sometimes completely eliminate them.

Many long-distance sailors write in their diaries that they feel a need to know how their family spends their evenings, what friends and relatives do, as well as about events happening in the world. Representatives of such professions say that they are interested even in various petty situations that happen to people they know.

Cognitive deprivation can also be observed in interpersonal relationships. These violations manifest themselves in the form of information depletion of interlocutors. With prolonged contact alone with each other, people cease to arouse interest in the second participant in the conversation. This phenomenon is especially pronounced in extreme conditions. As an example, the researchers cite a fact from the professional life of submarine employees.

At the stage of team formation, sailors, getting to know each other, exchange various information. Most often at this stage people exchange biographical information. A little later, the conversations cover many areas of life. People begin to discuss events that happened in their personal lives, books they read and films they watched. At a certain stage of communication, information exchange decreases, as people simply exhaust the topics for conversation. This fact is also talked about by many travelers who travel the world with a small group of like-minded people. Each of the participants in such a campaign gets the opportunity and time to speak out, but at a certain stage people simply lose the desire to talk with others.

There are special techniques for combating cognitive deprivation in extreme situations. One example of eliminating the need for various information is reading special lectures. It should also be noted that a group of people separated from the outside world experiences a spontaneous change of interlocutors. Most often, this situation occurs during the first three months of forced isolation. In special cases, the Internet can be a solution to this problem. Thanks to this type of obtaining information, many people have the opportunity to receive information about current events, even while at a distance from other people.

In everyday life, lack of information not only causes boredom, but also leads to more serious consequences

Conclusion

In conclusion, it must be said that the cognitive form of deprivation has a close relationship with the sensory one, since both types of “hunger” have common causes. In addition, these forms of the disorder have similar consequences for the human psyche.

Prolonged stay in such a state can lead to negative personal changes, which in the immediate future may affect the ability to integrate into society. In this article we will consider the concept of mental deprivation and get acquainted with examples of the manifestation of this syndrome.

Mental deprivation is the state of an individual deprived of satisfaction of key mental needs for a long time

How does mental deprivation manifest itself?

Every person experiences mental needs such as love, mutual understanding, support, respect and physical intimacy. Such incentives are of particular importance in childhood, as they are directly involved in a person’s personal development. The presence of deprivation syndrome leads to disorders at various levels. Experts identify four main areas of problems in personality development:

Based on data from numerous studies, we can say that sensory disorders develop during the formation of the embryo. The development of such mental disorders is facilitated by a woman’s negative attitude towards her own situation. The use of alcoholic beverages and drugs during this life period also negatively affects the formation of the fetus.

Impairments in sensory perception can be caused by abandonment of the child and subsequent placement in a boarding school. The lack of physical, visual and auditory contact with the mother significantly reduces the speed of development of the child. Psychological discomfort caused by the above circumstances can cause loss of sleep, restless behavior and increased tearfulness. In order to compensate for this condition, the baby changes his behavior. Many children raised in orphanages have problems with a sense of personal space. For such children, such boundaries do not have clear boundaries, since they have little sense of their own body.

Often problems in sensory perception are reflected physiologically. Children who have had short contact with their parents often show a tendency to allergies. In addition, certain pathologies are observed in the development of visual-motor functions. “Problem” children often suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The presence of the above problems in childhood gradually increases the level of psychological discomfort. Against this background, in adolescence, the child becomes anxious and irritable, which is a clear sign of emotional instability.

Problems associated with sensory perception negatively affect the understanding of the world around us, which leads to a slowdown in intellectual development.

In order for a baby to be able to interact with surrounding objects without fear, it is very important for him to feel the closeness and support of his parents. Speaking about this fact, experts from the field of psychology give examples according to which children from orphanages show much less physical activity in comparison with children from full-fledged families. Each child learns about the environment through trial and error, which is a certain stimulus for development. The absence of such stimuli leads to a delay in the formation of cognitive thinking.

Mental deprivation is as destructive for a person as biological deficiency

Disorders of social perception

Violations in social perception lead to a change in the child’s model of interaction with the outside world. Many “problem” children tend to have a negative perception of their own future. Such resignation to life's difficulties, and the lack of incentive to overcome them, leads to a clear problem of adaptation to the constantly changing rhythm of life.

A teenager with mental deprivation is firmly convinced that he is unable to manage his own life. On this basis, a stable opinion is formed about one’s own low importance, which is why self-esteem drops to critical levels. Beliefs that the child does not matter to others are integrated into the personality model. Thus, the incentive to overcome the difficulties that arise is lost.

Mental deprivation in childhood is dangerous precisely because of pathologies associated with social adaptation, since this area is one of the most important for intellectual development. A person born into a dysfunctional family does not understand the whole essence of the “unit of society,” which leads to various difficulties in interacting with peers, classmates and the opposite sex. Quite often, children with mental deprivation experience difficulties in establishing and realizing themselves in a team. Often such people prefer to live by their own rules, guided by principles that are unacceptable to society.

Many children who reach school age try to take a leadership position through force. In other cases, in order to feel protected, they cooperate with other children. For such children, those who do not belong to their group are strangers who can offend and bring pain into their lives.

To confirm this theory, psychologists argue that it is difficult for inmates of orphanages to start a family. The presence of unresolved childhood problems prevents successful self-realization both in family life and in a career. A feature of social perception disorders is that most children tend to “absorb” negative information regarding their personality. In contrast to negativity, positive characteristics from others are ignored due to the fact that the child simply does not believe in the possibility of a friendly attitude in his direction.

The manifestations of mental deprivation in preschool age include:

Fear of ridicule and bullying from others.
Increased anxiety and various phobias.
Distrust of other people.

During school, children suffering from this form of mental disorder experience problems with self-esteem, avoid unnecessary contacts with teachers and try to withdraw into their own world. Often, in an attempt to attract attention, children resort to physical violence against their peers. It is important to understand that children with mental deprivation perceive the environment as a world full of enemies, where each person seeks to cause only pain to others. Against this background, a person may feel helpless due to his low importance to others.

Deprivation, often occurring in a latent form, is a more dangerous condition than frustration

Disturbances in emotional perception

The emotional sphere of perception also suffers during deprivation in children. Lack of parental attention in childhood manifests itself in adulthood in the form of difficulties in emotional relationships with other people. Such a person experiences fear of close relationships and is constantly confident that others are hostile towards him. A child separated from his mother in infancy does not read “body language” well, which leads to various errors in perceiving the actions of other people. It is important to pay attention to the fact that various methods of education based on emotional techniques do not in any way affect the behavior of such a child.

Often, an attempt to influence behavior leads to aggression and withdrawal. The vast majority of children with varying degrees of deprivation suffer from self-esteem due to erroneous perceptions of the emotions of those around them. Many of them begin to blame themselves for the difficulties that arise, citing the fact that these difficulties are a consequence of insufficient upbringing. Most often, “difficult” children prefer to take out their negative emotions on their peers.

In order to normalize the child’s condition, parents should pay attention to the following factors:

Provide the child with the opportunity to independently perform certain actions.
Provide a positive sensory environment.
Provide your own personal space.
Fill the need for a sense of security.

Mental deprivation is a kind of “hunger” that occurs in children when there is a lack of attention to their needs. That is why it is very important to pay special attention to the psycho-emotional state of the child. Otherwise, such violations may cause problems with integration into society in later life. Many people suffering from mental deprivation experience difficulties in becoming part of a work team and building relationships with people around them.

Mental deprivation and its impact on the development of children in the first years of life Chapter 5

5.1. Terminology

Due to the fact that the problem of mental deprivation is under development, there is currently no uniform terminology on this topic. The most commonly used term is “deprivation,” which denotes the loss of something, deprivation due to insufficient satisfaction of basic mental needs.

It is believed that for a child to fully develop, the need for love and recognition must be satisfied first of all. Some consider it basic, innate, others talk about it as an acquisition in the process of life. Failure to satisfy this need leads to distortion of personality development and the emergence of emotional deprivation. The most striking expression of the consequences of this type of deprivation is observed in children in residential institutions.

Deprivation can occur not only in residential institutions, but also in the family, where the mother may be absent or she does not have enough emotional attitude towards the child (the so-called cold mother), and in such cases the concept of “maternal deprivation” is used. (maternal deprivation); in the absence of the father or his alienation from the child, paternal deprivation occurs.

In the literature we also come across the concept of “partial deprivation”, “latent deprivation”, etc. The concepts of “partial deprivation” and “latent deprivation” are used when we are not talking about separation from the mother, but about the impoverishment of the mother-child relationship.

The term “hospitalism” is used as a synonym for mental deprivation. Hospitalism is limited to describing the situation in which deprivation occurs in institutions (in most cases this is a hospital environment), but the hospital situation can be accompanied by influences other than deprivation (greater possibility of infection, changes in routine, lack of sleep, increased potential for conflicts while living in team, etc.). Moreover, under favorable conditions, deprivation in institutions may not occur at all. In general, terms that establish a concept only through a certain specific situation or on the basis of certain characteristics often do not reflect the nature of the phenomenon itself.

In addition to the term “hospitalism”, the concepts of “separation” and “isolation” are used, used as equivalent. Separation, isolation of a child from a full-fledged environment of human communication represents a deprivation situation, and not deprivation itself.

Mental deprivation is characterized by a special mental state that arises in a deprivation situation. This mental state manifests itself in behavior characterized by characteristic features, which makes it possible to recognize deprivation. The mechanism of deprivation is associated with the child’s alienation from certain relationships with the world of people and the objective world and is caused by insufficient satisfaction of the child’s basic mental needs, which modify the structure of the developing child’s personality. Thus, mental deprivation is a certain mental state that arises as a result of such life situations when the child is not given the opportunity to satisfy his basic (life) needs in full and for a sufficiently long time.

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Mental deprivation of children

Deprivation is a lack, deficiency, limitation of some means, conditions, objects to satisfy any individual needs, as a result, various negative mental states arise, including depression.

The main and significant thing is that deprivation situations, that is, situations of lack and deficiency, cause mental deprivation of varying strength and intensity. In the future, we will focus on various types of deprivation, which depend on certain specific needs of the individual.

Deprivation can also mean a deficiency of perceptions, ideas, a deficiency of information, a deficiency of a wide variety of stimuli emanating from other individuals representing the social environment.

Deprivation is the deprivation of means and opportunities to satisfy basic mental needs, among which are the following:

1) the need for communication;

2) the need for cognitive (oriented) activity;

3) the need for physical activity;

4) the need to communicate with peers;

5) the need for personal identification;

6) the need to be an object of love and care, attention, affection, tenderness;

7) the need for positive emotions.

Deprivation can be chronic in conditions of constant shortage (shortage) of some conditions, means, objects to satisfy material, spiritual and mental needs.

Deprivation can be partial, periodic, spontaneous, depending on the duration of deprivation caused by a shortage of goods, services, items, conditions.

This article will use the concept of socio-psychological deprivation, when, for example, a child has a deficit in communication with his mother, father, and peers. Socio-psychological deprivation logically follows from the deficit (incompleteness, lack) of interaction of this particular individual with people significant to him (parents, relatives, friends, peers, people of the opposite sex).

The types and forms of deprivation depend on the types (groups, subgroups, subsystems) of needs, in the process of satisfying which there is a certain deficit, a lack for the normal satisfaction of a particular group of needs. In this regard, we correlate all deprivation situations of the individual depending on the types of unmet needs. At the same time, we immediately note that dissatisfaction can be of varying strength, intensity and intensity, therefore one should constantly keep in mind to what extent and extent there is a shortage of means and conditions for satisfying a particular need, to what extent and extent unsatisfied needs disrupt the normal functioning of the individual .

The theory of mental deprivation makes it possible to explain mental states, mental deficiencies, mental deprivations that arise as a result of deficiency, lack, hunger, lack of funds, conditions, objects, or the satisfaction of a particular need. In itself, this may not concern the problems of family education, but it makes it possible to understand the causes and mechanisms of abnormal development of the child, i.e. explain the defects and malformations of his mental development.

So, the main question is what unpleasant things should be expected (in a mental and medical sense) if a child experiences a lack of communication, a deficit of emotional contacts, a lack of maternal care and love. In the present conditions, where a working woman is a busy and overworked mother. These problems of dysfunctional motherhood result in problems of dysfunctional childhood.

The need for positive emotions for a child is very important as it is associated with pleasure, joy, good health and good mood. But this is possible when the child’s vital needs for drinking, food, warmth, dryness, and comfort are met in a timely manner and in full. However, a child’s positive emotions can only appear when he is provided with peace, protection, and security.

The main significance of the child’s emotional connection with his mother is that it provides him with safety, protection, and confidence in this safety and protection. A child’s natural reaction to anything new is fear as a signal of danger. The mother is called upon to rid the child of fear.

The need for emotional connections and contacts is itself complex and multifaceted, as it provides the child with a sense of safety and security, as well as satisfying his need for positive emotions that give him a sense of confidence.

At the same time, the need for physical and emotional contact between the child and his mother creates another need in him, namely the need to communicate with his mother, because she is a source of pleasure, pleasantness, joy. There is a complex dialectic of the emergence of a new need based on an already functioning and existing need.

It is necessary to take into account the fact that the child’s needs are met constantly, in an ever-expanding volume. Social stimuli that activate the child’s activity must be differentiated in a certain way, properly organized, so that the child can comprehend, organize, and bring certain correspondences with existing experience.

So, each period of a child’s development corresponds to a different level of complexity of the system of dynamically developing needs and a different level of their satisfaction. As the child’s needs develop, more and more new demands are placed on the social environment.

The child needs more and more new contacts with the environment, more and more new incentives for his progressive development.

Mental development of a child in conditions of socio-psychological deprivation

2. Features of a child’s mental development in conditions of socio-psychological deprivation

One of the important problems of psychology is the study of socio-psychological deprivation, i.e. a mental state that arises as a result of life situations where the subject is not given the opportunity to satisfy his most important needs in sufficient measure and for a sufficiently long time.

The psychological aspects of deprivation disorders are currently poorly studied, and the scale of changes associated with them is not predicted. It is especially difficult to understand how individual deprivation factors operate in childhood when they are superimposed on the developmental process, which includes physical growth, maturation of the nervous system, and the formation of the psyche. All this determined the relevance of this work and the choice of research topic: “The mental development of a child in conditions of socio-psychological deprivation.”

The purpose of the work is to study the mental development of a child under conditions of socio-psychological deprivation.

To achieve the goal of the study, it is necessary to solve the following problems:

1. Study the concept of deprivation in psychological and pedagogical research;

2. Reveal the features of a child’s mental development in conditions of socio-psychological deprivation.

The problem of socio-psychological deprivation has been studied by such famous teachers and psychologists as: Landgmeyer J., Matejchik Z., Martsinkovskaya T.D., Zalysina I.A., Smirnov E.O., etc. As shown by the results of research by Martsinkovskaya T. D. and other authors, a decrease in children’s communication with others leads to socio-psychological deprivation.

1. The concept of deprivation in psychological and pedagogical research

Due to the fact that the problem of mental deprivation is under development, there is currently no uniform terminology on this topic. The most commonly used term is “deprivation”, which denotes the loss of something, deprivation due to insufficient satisfaction of basic mental vital needs.

Depending on what exactly a person is deprived of, different types of deprivation are distinguished - psychological, emotional, social, motor, sensory, informational, etc.

The child's mental needs are undoubtedly best satisfied by his daily communication with the environment. If for any reason the child is prevented from such contact, if he is isolated from a stimulating environment, then he inevitably suffers from a lack of stimuli. This isolation can be of varying degrees. When completely isolated from the human environment for a long period, it can be assumed that basic mental needs, which were not satisfied from the very beginning, will not develop.

A single deprivation syndrome, according to many researchers, does not exist, since the consequences of mental deprivation can cover the entire scale of mental disorders, ranging from mild features of mental reaction to very severe disorders of the development of intelligence and the entire mental make-up of the individual.

Thus, mental deprivation is a certain mental state that arises as a result of such life situations when the child is not given the opportunity to satisfy his basic (life) needs fully and for a sufficiently long time.

Another type of deprivation is sensory, associated with a depleted object environment and a deficiency of sensory stimuli. This type of deprivation is also encountered in orphanages, orphanages, etc.

Deprivation can occur not only in residential institutions, but also in the family, where the mother may be absent or she does not have enough emotional attitude towards the child (the so-called cold mother), and in such cases the concept of “maternal deprivation” is used. In the absence of the father or his alienation from the child, paternal deprivation occurs.

Social deprivation is also highlighted. The development of a child largely depends on communication with adults, which affects not only the mental, but also, in the early stages, the physical development of the child. Communication can be viewed from the perspective of various humanities. From the point of view of psychology, communication is understood as the process of establishing and maintaining purposeful, direct or indirect contact by one means or another between people who are somehow connected to each other psychologically. Child development, within the framework of the theory of cultural-historical development, is understood by Vygotsky as the process of children’s appropriation of socio-historical experience accumulated by previous generations. Gaining this experience is possible by communicating with elders. At the same time, communication plays a decisive role not only in enriching the content of the child’s consciousness, but also determines its structures. Immediately after birth, the child has no communication with adults: he does not respond to their requests and does not address himself to anyone. But after the 2nd month of life, he begins to interact, which can be considered communication: he begins to develop a special activity, the object of which is an adult. Communication with adults in infants plays a kind of triggering role in the development of a response to important stimuli. Among the examples of social deprivation, such textbook cases as A.G. Hauser, wolf children and Mowgli children. All of them could not (or spoke poorly) speak and walk, often cried and were afraid of everything. During their subsequent upbringing, despite the development of intelligence, disturbances in personality and social relationships remained. The consequences of social deprivation are irremovable at the level of some deep personal structures, which manifests itself in distrust (except for group members who have suffered the same thing, for example in the case of children developing in concentration camps), the importance of the feeling “WE”, envy and excessive criticism.

Thus, psychologists distinguish different types of deprivation and all types of deprivation have harmful consequences and, ultimately, result in social deprivation. Uncertainty, anxiety, depression, fear, delayed intellectual development are the most characteristic features of deprivation syndrome.

2. Peculiarities of a child’s mental development in conditions of socio-psychological deprivation. The impoverishment of the child’s natural environment and social environment should be considered as conditions of socio-psychological deprivation. Man is a part of nature, without interaction with which his life cannot be complete. Thanks to nature, the developing organism gradually accumulates health and strength. The development of a child in natural conditions is a significant factor in his physical and mental well-being. It is known that a child needs communication. However, the mere presence of live communication between a child and adults is not enough for his harmonious mental development, for the full maturation of his personality. The quantity and quality of communication are of great importance. The consequences of insufficient communication between a child and an adult disrupts and changes the course of the child’s normal mental maturation.

In conditions of socio-psychological deprivation, children have a number of personal characteristics, in particular, they do not learn productive communication skills in the presence of a pronounced need for love and attention; They do not know how to establish communication with others. Due to incorrect and insufficient communication experience, children often take an aggressive and negative position towards other people. The emotionally unstable position of the child leads to disruption of affective-personal relationships.

According to M.I. Lisina, children of the first year of life, in a situation of socio-psychological deprivation, are lethargic, apathetic, lacking cheerfulness, their cognitive activity is reduced, emotional manifestations are simplified, pre-personal formations or internal structures that form the basis for personality formation are deformed. They do not develop attachment to an adult, they are sad and passive; in preschool children, specific conditions of socio-psychological deprivation lead to forced superficiality of feelings, emotional insufficiency

In the studies of I.A. Zalysina, it is shown that preschool children have impairments in personal communication, which is based on the need for mutual understanding and empathy; They are characterized by reduced emotionality, activity in communication, and stinginess in expressing their experiences.

What is mental deprivation and its consequences for child development

Deprivation is a mental state that arises as a result of life situations where the child is not given the opportunity to satisfy basic (life) mental needs in sufficient measure and for a sufficiently long time.

The basic vital mental needs of a child are the need for love, acceptance, self-esteem, physical intimacy, communication, support, etc.

Developmental disorders in a child brought up in deprivation conditions occur at four levels:

Level of bodily sensations (sensory level);

The level of understanding of the world in which he lives (intellectual or cognitive level);

The level of establishing close emotional relationships with someone (emotional level);

The level that allows you to comply with the norms and rules of society (social level).

According to recent studies, disturbances at the level of bodily sensations begin in the child in the womb, when she has a negative attitude towards her pregnancy and does not change her habits, especially those associated with the abuse of alcohol or other psychoactive substances. Abandoning a baby and placing him in an orphanage or psychological rejection of him after childbirth catastrophically reduces the number of physical, auditory, visual contacts with the mother or her substitute. This causes a constant state of psychological discomfort in the child, contributes to disruption of the rhythm of sleep and wakefulness, and causes excessively restless, poorly controlled behavior. Subsequently, trying to calm himself down and tone his state, he begins to sway with his whole body, accompanying the swaying with a monotonous howl. Trying to reduce the level of psychological discomfort, he often resorts to masturbation. He has a poor sense of the boundaries of his body, so he either clings to everyone or tries to refuse contact. Without feeling his own boundaries, the child does not feel the boundaries of another person, someone else's space, someone else's property.

Such children suffer from various types of allergies, especially those associated with skin rashes. They have difficulty developing hand-eye coordination (for example, they crawl a little or in a different direction, then “write like a chicken with its paw”), lack of concentration and restlessness. A primary feeling of one’s own failure and a tendency to experience constant psychological discomfort, external danger, instability, fear and resentment are formed.

Developmental problems at the physical level also negatively affect his understanding of the world in which he lives, and therefore his intellectual development. A child begins to develop well when the world seems safe to him, when, crawling away or running away from his mother, he can turn around and see her smiling face. Therefore, a child raised in an orphanage or in a family where parents have no time for him crawls less, and therefore less actively, compared to children from prosperous families, masters the world around him, makes less trial and error, and receives less developmental stimuli from environment. As a result, his intellectual development is delayed.

He starts speaking late, often constructs phrases and pronounces sounds incorrectly.

Social level. Most importantly, he is prone to building “catastrophic models of the world”, where continuous troubles await him, and he is unable to do anything to avoid or cope with them. The world is incomprehensible and disordered, so it is impossible to anticipate and regulate what is happening from the outside. Someone else, but not him, controls his destiny. As a result, the child develops an image of himself as a helpless little loser whose initiative can have a negative result for everyone. He develops basic beliefs such as “I won’t succeed anyway” and “I can’t be loved.” That's why he doesn't try to cope where he could.

Social level (level of compliance with society norms).

The social level is the top of the entire child development pyramid. A child from a family, especially a prosperous one, recognizes his belonging to his family, clan. He clearly knows who he is, whose son (daughter). He knows who he is like and whose behavior he repeats. A child from a prosperous family, when asked: “Who are you?” answers: “Boy (girl), son (daughter) of such and such.” A child from an orphanage to the question: “Who are you?” answers: “Nobody,” “orphanage resident.” He does not have a positive model for building relationships in the family or team, although his whole life passes in a group. Often, an orphanage pupil plays roles that do not allow him to successfully socialize: “clingy”, “aggressor”, “negative leader”, etc. In the orphanage group, children live according to their own norms and rules. For example, the one who is stronger is right; it is impossible to ensure one’s own safety (norms and rules are close to hazing). Find a strong one, do everything he orders, and then you can survive. Everyone who is not in the group is strangers (enemies), don’t get attached to anyone, they will leave you anyway, etc. After leaving an orphanage, it is extremely difficult for children to live independently, have a family, raise their own children, and hold down a job.

Such an image of oneself is constantly confirmed in the information from the outside that the child selects from the entire stream. He is overly attentive to negative information about himself and often does not believe in positive information and ignores it.

The “catastrophic model of the world” leads to the following distorted ideas about oneself and the world:

Ideas about one's own unattractiveness;

Ideas about one’s own “danger”;

Violations of faith in others;

People who love me mock me;

Other people are dangerous;

Violations of trust in the world;

Public places such as schools, hospitals, social services are dangerous, where I may be offended or rejected

Crime is normal.

A deprived child perceives the world around him as hostile, and other people as capable of causing him pain.

Mental deprivation leads to the development in the child of a feeling of helplessness, hopelessness and loss of self-esteem and significance.

Emotional level. On an emotional level, the child experiences various attachment disorders. Having experienced an early separation from the mother, regardless of whether he remembers it or not, the child finds it more difficult to enter into close emotional relationships with others. He is afraid to trust, afraid of the pain of loss, tries to protect himself from it by closing himself off from the world. Often he simply does not understand well the meaning of the facial expressions of others and interprets them as hostile. It is especially necessary to pay attention to the fact that the stern look that parents usually use to influence the child’s behavior does not have the desired effect on the adopted child and provokes aggression.

Therefore, various aggressive manifestations are observed in his behavior. These include the desire to never admit to anything, even the obvious.

The child is inclined to blame himself for the vicissitudes of his fate, to believe that it was his “bad” qualities that led to the fact that his parents were unable to raise him, or to the fact that something happened to them. As a result, he may offend others or act defiantly, thereby provoking punishment or retaliatory aggression.

This especially often begins to manifest itself when the child tries to form an attachment to the host family. He begins to feel guilty for betraying “his own” and MAY provoke his adoptive parents to punish him, thereby supporting the fantasy of his own ideal parents. Wanting to regain lost love, the child tries to take something valuable for another. According to our observations, if a child builds satisfying relationships in the host family, then he can go through a situation of theft in the family; if the relationship is cold, he actively begins to steal from other adults, for example, from a teacher. In this case, the child is able to form a secondary attachment to members of the foster family.

To do this, he needs time and patience from his parents.

Conditions for building relationships with children with developmental deprivation disorders:

* Providing a sensory-rich environment;

* Filling the need for security;

* Respecting the boundaries of the child’s personal space;

“The impact of separation and loss on child development”

Losses are generally divided into two categories:

1. Losses that are an integral part of human life

2. Losses that are unexpected for us, about which we think that they will pass us by in life.

Unexpected losses are often more painful because they are not perceived as a normal part of human life.

Losses can also be divided into three types:

The first type: this is the loss of health, both physical and mental.

The second type: the loss of a loved one, either through death, divorce or infertility, when the expected baby is never born.

The third type: loss of self-esteem when we feel shame or pain.

The circumstances that bring a child into a new family are unexpected losses that have very serious consequences for children. They are often accompanied by loss of health (due to violence or mistreatment), loss of loved ones (parents, siblings, other relatives), loss of self-esteem (children begin to blame themselves - they were bad and that is why their parents abandoned them or died).

The pain of loss can be the reason why a child gets stuck at one stage of development and does not move forward or even goes down a step in his development.

Adopted children have often experienced more than one loss. Before they had time to recover from one grief, another one fell on them. Constant losses reduce a child's ability to cope with stress. Any hint of a loss situation evokes very strong emotions associated with previous losses. Children and adolescents who find themselves in a new family (even in a family of relatives) are separated from their families and lose the world to which they are accustomed. They will suffer. They experienced a loss of trust when their parents failed to give them what they needed to develop or were abusive. Some children lived in institutions for orphans, other families. The pain of loss or separation from loved ones is a trauma that can cause a child to become stuck at one stage of development and not move forward, or even move down a notch in their development.

When adopting a child, you must anticipate that his past experiences will influence his life in your family. The child may have developed certain behavioral patterns that helped him to experience neglect or abuse in the past. But these stereotypes are not suitable for ordinary life. Society may view such behavior as inappropriate or disruptive. Some children who have experienced separation and loss may be angry, depressed or even hostile

tuned in because of the pain they have endured in life. If you see evil, look for pain.

Some children look so obedient that it is simply impossible to believe. They seem charming and carefree. It's just a different path they've chosen to deal with the pain. It will still come to the surface, but a little later, when the child feels safe.

When placed with a new family, the child again begins to experience the trauma and pain of loss. Once in a family, the child seems to experience a “flood” of his difficult memories, which he finds difficult to cope with and about which he constantly, obsessively tries to tell his parents.

Happening. At the age of 6, Christina found herself in a new family after leaving an orphanage. In the orphanage she was a very obedient and carefree girl. The new family immediately liked it. While walking to the new house, she laughed merrily, glad that she was taken into the family. But when Christina crossed the threshold of the apartment, she began to cry. When they tried to calm her down with the usual means, she threw herself on the floor and began to fight in hysterics. She couldn't calm down for a long time. The girl “suddenly” remembered that a year ago she witnessed the murder of her mother. She remembered how it happened, her horror (she was alone with the corpse for 3 days). No one responded to her cries. The neighbors are used to someone always making a fuss and shouting in the apartment. The trauma was so severe for the girl that she “forgot” it, as psychologists say, “repressed” it from her memory. In the orphanage, the girl never remembered what happened to her. She experienced an “echo of trauma” in her family. The help of a specialist was needed to help the girl complete this injury.

When placed in a foster family, a child needs to adapt to changes in his life. Adjustment occurs through the revival of traumatic feelings associated with separation and loss. In a sense, the child goes through the stages of experiencing the trauma again, which affects his behavior.

STAGES OF EXPERIENCE OF TRAUMA

1. DENIAL OF WHAT HAPPENED/SHOCK

Temporary escape from reality - “This didn’t really happen. The desire to “bury your head in the sand.” “I will wake up and find that everything is fine.”

Sometimes a child may be overcome by strong rage, which can be directed at anyone, but most often - at those closest to him, a doctor or God.

3.SADNESS AND DEPRESSION

"Coma in the throat" syndrome.

Common symptoms of depression: loss of energy, apathy, malaise.

Loneliness - “No one can understand me.”

Guilt – “I must have done something wrong.”

4. FEAR OF “TRADE” WITH GOD

A lot of worries and doubts about my actions: “If I hadn’t been so bad, then my mother would have remained alive,” “If I had behaved well, they wouldn’t have taken me away from the family,” “If only I had done this and that.” anyway, this wouldn’t have happened.”

A lot of doubts and mistrust: “Are teachers, doctors (and nurses) telling me the truth?”

Empty dreams - attempts to find a magical solution.

Thoughts like “If only...”: “If only I were an ideal son (daughter),” etc.

“Deal” prayers: “Lord, if You fix the situation, I promise...”

Reluctance to move away from sadness and feelings of loss.

The feeling that if you stop grieving, the connection with the deceased relative (or with the relative from whom you were separated) will be severed.

Feelings of guilt due to coming to terms with the loss. Humility is betrayal. Negative emotions are perceived as the only connection with the deceased (or with the one from whom they were separated).

RECONCILIATION WITH LOSS

The child can now calmly build relationships with his new family - the bitterness of the loss still remains, but does not prevent him from moving on with his life.

Peace of mind appears again.

There is no lump in the throat every time the child remembers what he experienced.

This is a normal part of human life;

Affects feelings, which in turn influence behavior;

Requires new parents (adoptive parents, guardians, adoptive parents, foster carers) and professionals to join forces to help children cope with their feelings and behavior;

There is a certain path that must be followed when faced with loss. As children walk along this path, certain signs appear that indicate where the child is in this process. Children also have certain needs that need to be treated very carefully and met at every stage of the feelings they experience.

If in an orphanage a child, protecting himself from mental pain, seems to “forget” many tragic events from his life, then, finding himself in a situation of family relationships, trying to become attached to the family, he begins to experience a “flood” of his traumatic memories.

The child talks and talks, he can neither stop nor switch to something else, talking about such situations from his past life. For example, about his mother’s prostitution, his parents’ alcoholism, murders and suicides, which he observed in his life and which an ordinary family never encounters. These stories frighten family members and make them feel confused. How to react in such a situation? It is best to let the child speak out. Unspoken memories will remain with him and “turn” into fears that will be very difficult for the child to cope with. It is advisable to listen to the child, nodding sympathetically from time to time, but without commenting on the content of his story. You can hug the child if he allows it. After the story, you need to tell him that you understand him, you see how upset he is, how hurt he is, that you will do everything possible to help him cope with this pain, that he can count on you. It's a good idea to set aside a space in the house and agree on a time when you can talk calmly with your child.

For a foster child, it is critical that foster parents demonstrate 24 hours a day, seven days a week that:

* their feelings and emotions are very important;

* they will be taken care of;

* their needs can be expressed and accepted positively;

* Foster parents and other adults can be consistent and trustworthy.