Childhood Isolation

To start, I apologize for my very late posting - I have been dealing with illness.

I decided to do some research on childhood isolation. I can't say that I experienced isolation during my childhood, but my husband has had times in his childhood where he felt lonely, whether he was really by himself or not, particularly at school. He had a difficult time making friends during his childhood years, as he was growing into himself and through an awkward stage. He got involved in sports teams after school and on the weekends, but never really had a good friend to rely on and play with.
Since he felt an extreme lack in his life, he compensated for his saddess in a few ways. One of the most powerful struggle was his cognitive need to seek approval from his peers and a need to look "cool" to his classmates or teammates. This need for approval carried with him through his schooling and, now looking back, even into high school and college, he found it difficult to step out this emotional need. He also spent a lot of time crying himself to sleep to get an immediate emotional release as well as learning new instruments and releasing through music. After some time, he became very interested and busy with music and sports that his isolation actually grew so much that his daily schedule was all about him doing activities by himself.

According to studies done in the UK, there have been a few reports of children raised in isolation and studied for the effects on normal development. In the UK, courts have seen cases in which caregivers or parents have been charged with gross neglect, manslaughter, or actual bodily harm. In these cases, children are not only experiencing isolation, but also physical or emotional abuse. One of the most unbelievable facts that stood out to me was that 18 of the 24 cases dealing with gross neglect included mothers who left their child(ren) for long periods of time to work or SHOP; and those children were only 1 week of age or older. When children are left alone, without adult supervision or care, their is absolutely going to be biological, cognitive, and emotional damage happening, especially at such young ages when an immense amount of growth is occurring.

Reference List

Rogers, Sinclair (1976). Isolation in Early Childhood (ED 128073). US Department of Education. 14pp. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED128073&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED128073