Dka Child Profile

Profile
Erik is a Hispanic male born to teenage parents who meet when they were in Jr. high. Neither of them graduated from high school, with the highest level of education between them being the 10th grade. His father (19), is a migrant worker and is often not home as he was the following work like his own father did. His mother (17) stays at home with him but is often neglectful due to lack of parenting skills and help. His father is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico while his mother has DACA status. His mother does not pick him up when he cries and avoids daily interactions with them. She spends most of her time watching television, doing her nails and talking with friends. Both parents abuse alcohol and mild drugs. His father was deported

One child (12, White Female) is biological to the foster parents and the other is a newly adopted child (4, Black, Male). His foster father is a doctor and his foster mother is a housewife, although she has a teaching degree. Erik spends most of his time with his foster mother and four-year-old foster brother. He does attend a daycare twice a week for four hours at a time to work on his socialization. The family often tries to experience new things every weekend and they go the park at least once a month. Erik has severe crying fits when he is taken to daycare even though it has been three months since he was placed in his current home. He is not fully verbal and often grunts his requests to his foster family. He responds mostly to his foster mother as she is his primary caregiver, but does acknowledge the others. He is missing several of the developmental milestones for his age to include socialization and communication. The foster family hopes to adopt Erik as his biological parents have given up all rights to

This has a negative impact on the life outcomes for him even with the changes made by his seen to be adopted family. Individuals that live below the poverty line are more prevalent to have a cognitive delay due to external factors like prenatal drug use, environmental toxins, poor nutrition, and exposure to stress and violence (Coley, 2013). Another delay in development is caused by the lack of spoken word. A study by Hart and Risley (1995) demonstrated that by the age of four, children from low-income households hear 32 million fewer spoken words than their counterparts. Not to mention the quality of conversation differs as well. Another setback for Erik is that his parents were both teenagers with no family support. Research has shown that neglect can affect a child’s ability to learn, problem solve, and make tasks difficult that require higher level thinking (Pizzolongo, 2011). Erik is also at risk for more illnesses later in life than a white middle class child of the same