My mind turned back to feral children because Oxana Malaya is in the news again. Some people don't list her as feral because her case is one of extreme neglect. From 3 years to 8 years of age (before Ukrainian child protection authorities became involved) she mainly socialized with dogs.

23-year-old Oxana Malaya from a village in Ukraine is a feral child, one of only about 100 known in the world. When she was three, her alcoholic parents left her outside one night and she crawled into a hovel where they kept dogs. No one came to look for her or even seemed to notice she was gone, so she stayed where there was warmth and food.

From: British Expert Goes to Ukraine to Study Girl Raised by Dogs

So why would parents adopting Post Institutionalized (PI) children be interested in feral children?

Feral children are extreme cases of deprivation. They haven't been socialized or allowed to develop in a human culture.

PI children are typically cases of deprivation. The child may not have received enough food, love, touch, play, shelter.

As an adoptive parent I want to know... How can I help my child recover from being institutionalized?

Families can adopt from over 200 orphanages in Ukraine. The quality of the child care greatly varies from orphanage to orphanage. The director could be stealing orphanage money. Or the director could be using personal funds to buy more food for his kiddos. You just don't know.

Adoptive parents should assume the worse case scenario and research supportive services (head start, public school system screening and testing, therapy costs and availability, local adoptive support groups) before they travel to Ukraine. Developmental delays are common and don't always go away with time, love and extra food.

I believe that many adults working in orphanages are doing the best that they can do. But lack of information about basic things (importance of touching), lack of money, lack of staff... These all can cause harm to a child's developmental progress.

For example my darling darling was emotionally a 1-year old when she entered the orphanage system. When I adopted her at 3.5 years of age, she was emotionally a 1-year old.


Feral Children
The Forbidden Experiment
Ukrainian Girl Raised by Dogs
What Can Be Learned From Feral Children?