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TOPIC 1 CREATING QUALITY EARLY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT 
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Related research also found those childrenÊs early environment has a lasting impact on their stress response system development. This study was conducted in Bucharest, Romania and involved children who were exposed to extreme negative environment and those who were placed with supportive families. The study focused on children who spent their first year of lives in Romanian orphanages (see Figure 1.2) and others who were removed from orphanages and placed in foster care. The findings of the study showed that young children who spent their first year of lives in Romanian orphanages had weak stress system responses such as lower heart rate acceleration, increase in blood pressure during stressful tasks and produced lower cortisol, a metabolite of the primary hormone for stress response. In comparison, those children who were removed from orphanages and placed in foster care before the age of 24 months, had stress system responses similar to children being raised at home by parents. The results of this study indicate that childrenÊs early environment can impact their stress system development. This study also suggested that removing young children from adverse environment can lessen such damaging effects and can overcome those effects in the long term. It proved that early supportive environment is important in young childrenÊs development and placing them in a supportive environment where they have responsive and sensitive adults has a lasting and meaningful effect on their life.
Figure 1.2: Children in an orphanage in Bucharest, Romania
Source: http://www.washington.edu/news/2015/04/20/study-shows-early- environment-has-a-lasting-impact-on-stress-response-systems/
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