In what ways can environmental factors cause intellectual deficits? Can children recover from such deficits?

Essay from the year 2004 in the subject Psychology - Developmental Psychology, grade: 2.1, Oxford Brookes University, 5 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Many researchers have tried to identify environmental factors that can cause intellectual deficits. These include malnutrition, deprivation of parental care, abuse, prenatal drug exposure or exposure to stress hormones, parental style and so on. It is important to identify such potential factors in order to consider the risk of intellectual deficits. Further one has to investigate how these early developmental influences are connected with the outcome in maturity. It has been suggested by some researchers that certain kinds of early experiences produce irreversible effects. I am going to explore some of the environmental factors that can cause intellectual deficits. Further I am going to investigate whether children can recover from such deficits.