Promising Results from a Cognitive Stimulation Program in Infancy

Abstract

The favorable results of the minimal stimulation program here described have important implications for all who provide health services for underprivileged preschool children. The authors indicate that this project is the first which coordinates compensatory infant education with complete health care, with the prime educator being a public health nurse.T&dquo; many inner city children do poorly I 'HAT many inner cit children do poorly in our public school systems is undisputed. As a group they show IQ scores 10 to 20 points below middle class children,, and have more behavior disturbances and personality dysfunctions in school. 2. One of the earliest and broadest attempts at enrichment, the Head Start program, seems to have established two far-reaching principles: (I) three years of age is much too late to begin intervention,~ (2) unless the educational program includes the parents the results will be meager and reversible .4As a direct result of the deficiencies revealed through the Head Start experience, 36 Parent and Child Centers were started in 1967 with programs directed toward improving the physical and emotional health and cognitive development of children from birth to 3 years of age.&dquo; The Centers, administered by the Office of Economic Opportunity, may encompass both homebased stimulation efforts and day care programs. These long-term and expensive studies are being evaluated, but statistical data will not be available for some time. The same may be said for the handful of experimental infant day care programs which began to develop about 1965, fostered by the interest of the staff of the National Institute of Mental Health. These are concentrating on preventing culturally determined mental retardation.6, The results thus far appear very favorable. The figures from many group infant care programs 8 which are primarily for service will also be evaluated in due course. Other research programs in early education are concerned for the most part with children two years of age or older.9 9 Developmental Studies with Infants If we confine our citations to those of investigators whose subjects are under one year of age, we find five-with work still in progress -which have published some results.

Teenage Mothering: Child Development at Five Years

“…Our findings support evidence from some previous studies where teenage mothers were found to have more physical than verbal interaction with their infants, who in general have been found to be more active but less responsive to stimuli and less likely to engage in affective behaviour (Gutelius et al, 1972;Osofsky and Osofsky, 1970;Oppel and Royston, 1971;Baldwin and Cain, 1980).…”

“…Osofsky and Osofsky (1970) showed reduced length and weight gain during the first year, and in older children Oppel and Royston (1971) found that children born to mothers under 18 yr were shorter and, to a lesser extent, lighter. Not all studies have demonstrated this effect (Gutelius et al, 1972), and the association of low maternal age with reduced height and head circumference was of only marginal significance in this study. Some of the demonstrated effect on children's physical size might reflect nutritional problems of the younger mother during pregnancy or of the family subsequently (Osofsky, 1971;Kaminetsky ei al., 1973).…”

“…The results of our study demonstrate the international need for special programmes to enable teenage mothers and their children to fulfil their potential. Intervention programmes (Gutelius et al, 1972) suggest that apart from genetic influences, the intellectual development of the child is to a large extent a function of health care and language stimulation. The possible contribution of preschool education was assessed in relation to the flndings of the present study.…”

Factors promoting success in infant education.

“…The variables included such items as the child's self-confidence and ability to establish a relationship with the examiner during the Stanford-Binet test, the amount of vocalizing or conversation noted between mother and child in the early observation periods, the mother's interest in the physician's advice, and the frequency of the use of picture books and crayons in the home as reported by the mother. 4 Changes during the Course of Intervention…”

An evaluation of efforts to educate mothers about child development in pediatric office practices.

“…[27][28] In another inner city health clinic, children found to have developmental lags on screening tests were provided direct cognitive stimulation in the home through visits by trained college student volunteers and significant gains in development were produced.29 Scarr-Salapatek and Williams produced similar positive results by providing extra stimulation to premature infants in a hospital nursery and by teaching mothers to do this in the home. 30 Cullen found a decrease in the incidence of some behavior problems following his provision of extra counseling sessions for a sample of patients from his practice.…”