Evaluación cognitiva de niños: un estudio comparativo en San Luis, Argentina / Cognitive Evaluation of Children: a Comparative Study in San Luis, Argentina

Resumen En la provincia de San Luis (Argentina), se desarrollaron dos estudios con el propósito de conocer la incidencia de factores socioambientales en el desarrollo cognitivo de los niños. En la primera investigación se trabajó con una muestra de niños de alto riesgo entre 6 y 12 meses y, en la segunda, con una muestra de niños sanos de 6 a 9 años. Las evaluaciones cognitivas se llevaron a cabo mediante la aplicación de la Escala Argentina de Inteligencia Sensorio Motriz (EAIS) en la primera investigación y la versión argentina de la Escala de Inteligencia de Wechsler (WISC-IV) en la segunda. Los resultados reflejan que la variable ambiental nivel educativo materno incide en el rendimiento cognitivo alcanzado por los niños de 6 a 9 años, porque a medida en que aumenta la escolaridad materna mejoran los percentiles obtenidos por sus hijos. Sin embargo, no ocurre lo mismo en los bebés evaluados entre los 6 y los 12 meses de vida. Como conclusión, se remarca la importancia de los primeros años de vida en el crecimiento, la maduración y el desarrollo posterior del niño, así como el impacto que el medio familiar, cultural y social puede tener sobre los mismos. Además, se entiende al desarrollo cognitivo como un proceso multideterminado por aspectos subjetivos, ambientales, históricos-sociales y genéticos, entre otros.

Abstract Preliminary results are presented from two studies carried out in the province of San Luis, Argentina in which cognitive development in children was evaluated. A sample of high-risk children between 6 and 12 months of age was used in the first study, and in the second a sample of healthy children aged 6-9 years was used. Cognitive assessments were carried out by applying the Argentine Sensory-Motor Intelligence Scale (EAIS) in the first study and the Argentine version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WISC-IV) in the second study. The aim of this work is to discern what factors can affect cognitive development in children. The results reflect that the environmental variable, maternal educational level, affects the cognitive performance achieved by children from 6 to 9 years of age, since as maternal schooling increases the percentiles obtained by their children also rise. However, this was not the case in those infants evaluated between 6 and 12 months of age. We conclude about the importance of early life in growth, maturation and subsequent child development and the impact that family, cultural and social environments may have on them. Cognitive development is understood as a multi-determined process with subjective, environmental, historical and social and genetic aspects, among others.

The relation between child feeding problems as measured by parental report and mealtime behavior observation: A pilot study.

Because feeding problems have clear negative consequences for both child and caretakers, early diagnosis and intervention are important. Parent-report questionnaires can contribute to early identification, because they are efficient and typically offer a 'holistic' perspective of the child's eating in different contexts. In this pilot study, we aim to explore the concurrent validity of a short screening instrument (the SEP, which is the Dutch MCH-FS) in one of its target populations (a group of premature children) by comparing the total score with the observed behavior of the child and caretaker during a regular home meal. 28 toddlers (aged 9-18 months) and their caretakers participated in the study. Video-observations of the meals were coded for categories of eating behavior and parent-child interaction. The results show that the total SEP-score correlates with food refusal, feeding efficiency, and self-feeding, but not with negative affect and parental instructions. This confirms that the SEP has a certain degree of concurrent validity in the sense that its total score is associated with specific 'benchmark' feeding behaviors: food refusal, feeding efficiency and autonomy. Future studies with larger samples are needed to generalize the findings from this pilot to a broader context.