Stunting and mental development in children

Stunting is the nutritional indicator most consistenly correlated with children's mental development. In Third World countries stunting is usually associated with poor development in older children. Moreover, stunting in young children predicts poor later development. Generally, when social background is controlled for, the association between stunting and poor development remains. In a recent Jamaican study, nutritional supplementation given to stunted children for 2 years produced an improvement in psychosocial development. Supplementation and linear growth had shared and independent effects on change in development. There was also a significant relationship between change in developemnt and growth over the 2 year period. It is therefore probably that at least part of the poor development found in stunted children is due to poor nutrition. (AU)

Nutritional status and development of St. Lucian children at day care centres

This was a comparative study of children who attended day-care centres with those who stayed at home in St. Lucia. The children came from very similar social backgrounds and were compared using anthropometry and their performances at the Bettye Caldwell Preschool Inventory and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary tests. The quality of the service given in the day care centres was assessed. Finally the environment of the centres was compared with that of the homes of the community children. The sample consisted of 60 children, 30 in three rural government centres and 30 from the communities nearest the centres. There were 28 boys and 32 girls with an age range of 40 - 64 months and a mean age of 51.7ñ5.7 months. It was found that there was no significant difference between the combined centre and the combined community anthropometry values. No significant difference was found between the centre and community children in the Peabody Picture Vocabulary raw scores (centre mean - 16.5ñ4.6; community mean - 15.9ñ6.9). However significant differences was found in the Bettye Caldwell Preschool Inventory total scores between centre ( mean = 33.8ñ7.7) and community children ( mean = 27.7ñ8.1), p<0.01. School achievement and language development test scores were similar to those of four year old Dominican children, but lower than those of Jamaican children. The centres were found to offer an environment richer in play equipment than that of the homes, but not necessarily safer or with greater adult-child interactions. The centres were found to be deficient in safety measures such as fire safety, first aid, monitoring of health and nutritional status, furniture available, toilet facilities for the children and staff, and space available for the children to play. The staff had duties other than child care, and although reasonably qualified, with a reasonable staff-child ratio of 1:12.5, interaction with the children was limited. It was concluded that a higher school achievement was associated with attendance at the centre and may be attributed mainly to the presence of the higher level of play equipment offered at the centre. Attention should be paid to the improvement of safety measures, monitoring of health and nutritional status and availability of outdoor space. It is suggested that possibly training of the mothers to interact with their children may improve the school achievement scores of the community children (Summary)

Child rearing in poor urban Jamaica

Child rearing practices and attitudes were investigated using a questionnaire, among 75 families with 31-60-month-old children in poor suburban Kingston. A pattern emerged of many social contacts, outdoor activities and authoritarian discipline. While teaching and preparation for school were highly regarded, there was little conscious effort to foster cognitive and language development through play. Child rearing appears to reflect the infleunces of an African heritage, Western urbanization and poverty. Items from the questionnaire were used to devise an index of stimulation. Developmental assessments (DQs) were performed on a subgroup of 45 children. The results correlated positively with the index of stimulation. (Summary)

Effect of long term psychosocial stimulation on mental development of severely malnourished children

The effect of adding psychosocial stimulation to the treatment of severly malnourished children was studied by comparing the developmental levels (DQs) of the children with those of two other groups of children - an adequately nourished group with diseases other than malnutrition and a second malnourished group who received standard hospital care only. The intervention children underwent structural play sessions daily in hospital and weekly for 6 months after discharge; mothers were also shown how to play with them. The non-intervention malnourished group showed a marked deficit in DQ compared with the adequately nourished group throughout the study period. The intervention group made significant improvements in DQ in hospital and continued to do so after discharge. By 6 months they were significantly behind the adequately nourished group. (AU)