A child in an institution is a child who, due to abandonment by his parents or/and legal separation from his parents, must experience institutional placement, where he faces various socio-emotional challenges and adjustments in the process of growing up. The emphasis in this paper will be on institutional placement as a form of care for children without adequate parental care, abandoned children without parents and children who have experienced neglect, so such placement is in the best interest of the child. The act of abandoning a child represents an impermissible renunciation of parental care, and such a parent does not show the intention to care for his child, so it is then necessary to find a substitute care for the child. When the child is separated from the parent as the primary caregiver through abandonment and/or legal separation, inappropriate socio-emotional behaviors occur in the child, as a result of the failure to form a secure attachment with the parent as the primary caregiver. Separating children from the primary caregiver can lead to the development of insecure attachment and the creation of working models in establishing relationships with others, which consequently lead to emotional underdevelopment and social maladjustment. Attachment as an emotional bond between a parent (caregiver) and a child marks the most important form of development in the child's emotional and social development and it is the basis for the child's relationships in the future. Early attachment experiences result in the creation of internal working models, important for creating a mental image of oneself and other, and attachment styles that arise from them. It can be assumed that an abandoned child is neglected and emotionally damaged child. If a child has developmental difficulties, it is at increased risk because without systematic support and services in care, it undoubtedly cannot achieve or maintain a satisfactory level of health and development, as well as reach his full potential. Therefore, the emphasis of the work is on the presentation of the impact of abandonment and emotional neglect of children on the development and satisfaction of the child's needs, as well as on the prevention of abandonment and breaking of emotional ties between the child and the parents.