I’ll throw some terms out there, you google for your symptoms. A 12 month old who witnessed his mother being murdered by his father would likely develop PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and anxiety, possibly even depression as he develops. He would probably speak late and be hard to potty train, and sensitive to whatever discipline his foster parents tried. With loving care, he’d probably be okay, but as you say, he’s not going to get that care. Foster families tend to take on too many kids. Some of those older kids can be aggressive, violent, and/or act out sexually. There’s a good chance that a quiet scared kid would be sexually abused by a foster parent, caregiver or an older child in the home within three placements. Other reasons he might get bounced around: case workers have to place children with any relatives that can take them that can pass a background check, even grandparents or great-grandparents who may be too old (or get sick, or be closet alcoholics) or have the problems that caused the child’s parents to have problems in the first place. For instance, his paternal grandfather might be physically abusive, which is part of why his father had whatever mental problems cause him to kill his mother. Even the most loving foster families can have the same problems other families have – terminal illness, laid off of a job & home foreclosed – and when they have these problems, the case worker will move the foster children.

His father’s right may not be terminated immediately, so while his father is awaiting trial in jail, he may get visitation. Imagine being 15 months old and traumatized and driven by a stranger to a scary jail, brought into a visitation room and handed to the man who murdered your mother. There may not be many visits – two or three, until it’s established that the kid freaks out every time, but it’s enough to retraumatize the kid. The child is likely to develop RAD (reactive attachment disorder). He might be diagnosed with ADHD and/ or oppositional defiance disorder as he gets older. He might pretend to be tough and act like he doesn’t care so no one knows how bad it hurts when he’s rejected, or how scared he is, or how lonely. He might try alcohol or drugs to mask the pain. He might enjoy a little fire-starting, shoplifting, etc, or hurting small children or animals, deviant behaviors like that, which he might recognize is wrong. This might give him self esteem problems, make it hard for him to do well in school (or maybe he does great in school because it’s an escape). Really, there are a lot of factors at play here.