@boomerang,
@firefly,
Quote:
boomerang, "our current understanding of psychoneurobiology" has nothing to do with whether anything this woman said about that child is actually true.
boomerang
Quote:
Cortisol levels are usually significantly higher in kids with RAD or PTSD.
RAD and PTSD are associated with certain types of right brain dysfunction that are associated with certain behaviors.
boomerang, you don't know that this child has either RAD or PTSD. PTSD is not caused by brain dysfunction--post traumatic stress disorder is a reaction to stress, it is caused by the stress of an external event. Stress can certainly have many different effects on bodily functions.
But, in terms of the present discussion, about this particular 7 year old, you are suggesting this child suffers from psychiatric conditions he may not have. You are trying to pin diagnostic labels on him without any knowledge of his actual behavior, other than a few brief descriptive comments the adoptive grandmother made to the media--and she said those things to defend her own outrageous behavior.
Because your friend has an adopted child, from a Russian orphanage, who may suffer from these conditions, does not mean that the same is true for all children adopted from Russian orphanages. And your friend has had her child appropriately diagnosed and treated. She has had her child actually observed by other people.
The same is not true of Torry Hansen. The grandmother said the child was never seen by a mental health professional. We don't even know if he saw a pediatrician. Neighbors did not interact with the child. He was not enrolled in school. Almost no one outside the family had any contact at all with the child during the time he was with Hansen. So, we have only the word of the adoptive mother and grandmother that this child displayed any atypical or abnormal behaviors. And they made these claims about the child to defend their own shocking behavior. They may be lying or grossly exaggerating about this child. And, if they just wanted to be rid of the child, they may have fabricated behaviors that would sound plausible, because some children adopted from Russian orphanages have displayed severe violent behaviors. But this child may have displayed no such behaviors. These women might be lying.
Don't be too ready and willing to believe things about this child which may be baseless and untrue. The only outsider who seems to have observed the child was the social worker from the adoption agency who made a home visit in January. That person reported that things were going well and Hansen had no complaints about the child. If this child had very serious, deep rooted psychiatric problems, they would have surfaced during those first four months.
I am very skeptical about the truthfulness of what the adoptive mother and grandmother later said regarding the child's allegedly abnormal behavior. They may have provoked, or actually caused, behaviors by mistreating or inappropriately treating this child. They may simply have wanted to be rid of him, and made things up about him to justify the rejection. Like aidan, I am not inclined to believe them right now.
I think it is very significant that the child was not enrolled in school. School provides structure and routine and group interactions, all of which would be helpful to a child who has just come from an orphanage, which is a group living situation with structure and routine. Home schooling, if that was even done, might actually be very stressful for this type of child, and it would not provide the same sort of structure or opportunity for socialization which would be found in school. Not enrolling him in school, might reveal an insensitivity to certain needs this particular child might have.
Perhaps even more significant is the fact that the Russian child was neither enrolled in school nor registered for home schooling. The 10 year old "cousin" who may have been in the home was neither enrolled in school nor registered for home schooling. The law requires that a child receive an education, that he either be sent to school or be registered for an appropriate home schooling program. So, why were the child and his cousin neither attending school nor registered for home schooling? Does the Hansen family think they can simply disregard the child welfare laws that pertain to education? Have they committed educational neglect? An investigation into that matter is going on.
But it seems that they might have ignored, or willfully violated, the legal obligation of a parent to ensure that their child receive an education. And, if you think your child has serious psychiatric problems, you are obligated, as a parent, to have a professional evaluation done, otherwise this is medical neglect. The adoptive grandmother admitted this was never done. These things are possible indications of irresponsible and neglectful parenting while the child was in his adoptive home.
So, Hanson may have committed medical neglect, and educational neglect, long before she even put that child on a plane to abandon him in the most callous manner possible. I'm not ready to believe anything this woman or her mother might say about this child. They called the child psychopathic. But psychopaths are people who defy laws, people who act without regard for prevailing law or moral standards, including those laws that apply to parental obligations. The description seems to fit them.
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David, the child was only 7 when he flew to Moscow. He will turn 8 this week.
