[Early intervention and psycho-educational support: a review of the English language literature].

While research on early-intervention programs remains rare in France, there are numerous scientific publications in the English-language literature. This article attempts to describe the contribution of such programs in terms of children subsequent development and changes in their families. Twenty-six programs incorporating home intervention, care, social support and early-childhood education, have been conducted for more than a year within local and hospital populations selected through various scales of risk.

How can we boost IQs of "dull children"?: A late adoption study.

From 5,003 files of adopted children, 65 deprived children, defined as abused and/or neglected during infancy, were strictly selected with particular reference to two criteria: (i) They were adopted between 4 and 6 years of age, and (ii) they had an IQ <86 (mean = 77, SD = 6.3) before adoption. The average IQs of adopted children in lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES) families were 85 (SD = 17) and 98 (SD = 14.

Adoption and fostering of babies with Down syndrome: a cohort of 593 cases.

Recently, professionals in France have noticed an increase in newborns with Down syndrome (DS) being placed for adoption. The aim of this study was to investigate DS babies given up at birth for adoption and to consider the possible determinants of this in order to assess social acceptance of DS. A retrospective cohort of all living DS babies was collected from two birth-defect registries (Paris: 1981-1990; Marseilles area: 1984-1990).

Adult outcome of children reared for long-term periods in foster families.

Objective: To study the long term impact of adverse childhood experiences resulting from family breakdowns combined with a stable care environment. Another aim was to determine predictive factors for maladjusted psycho-social integration in adulthood.

Method: Sixty-three children from severely psychosocially dysfunctioning families selected from among those having been in care in an institutional setting: All had been reared for at least 5 years by foster families, had been out of care for more than 5 years and were at least 23 years old at the time of the survey.