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Nutritional status of pre-school children in an integrated child development service (ICDS) block of Chandigarh.

Nutritional status of 1286 pre-school children selected by a stratified random sampling and residing in urban, rural and slum areas of Chandigarh was assessed by weight for age criteria by making domicilliary visits. The overall prevalence of protein energy mulnutrition (PEM) was found to be 51.6% while 65.4%, 26.3%, 5.3% and 3% of children had grades I, II, II and IV PEM, respectively. The prevalence of malnutrition significantly increased with increase in age till 3rd year, then started declining (P<0.001). The prevalence of PEMwas significantly higher among Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) beneficiaries (53.8%) than non-ICDS beneficiaries (46.9%); P<0.05. More attention and better impetus are required to be given to improve the nutritional status of pre-school children in Chandigarh.

Child Health Services↗

Prevalence and clinical characteristics of fragile X syndrome at child development clinic, Ramathibodi Hospital.

Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited mental retardation, is an X-linked genetic disorder caused by an expanded CGG repeat in the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene. It is characterized by mental retardation, behavioral features, and physical features, such as a long face with large protruding ears and macro-orchidism. A screening for the syndrome was conducted in a representative sample of pediatric patients, who had developmental delay or mental retardation with unknown cause, at the Child Development Clinic, Ramathibodi Hospital. The DNA test was performed on all patients using PCR and southern blot techniques. Five positive cases were detected from 114 screened subjects, and more four cases confirmed among other family members. Two of five positive families initially denied a family history of mental retardation. Among 9 cases of fragile X syndrome, four had hyperactivity and two had autistic like behavior. More than half had rather a long face or prominent ears. Three boys had macro-orchidism.

Adolescent↗

Child development after maternal tocolysis with beta-sympathomimetic drugs.

The psycho-social development of both preterm and term children whose mothers reported tocolytic treatment was assessed at the ages of 2, 4.5, and 8 years. Term children exposed to tocolysis showed a higher rate of psychiatric disorders as well as poorer cognitive and motor performance than controls. In the preterm children no adverse impact of tocolysis could be found. The results are discussed concerning possible ways in which tocolytic treatment may influence child development. Restrictions because of the preliminary character of this study and the need of further prospective studies to clarify the developmental impact of tocolysis are also considered.

Adrenergic beta-Agonists↗

Integrating biological, behavioral, and social levels of analysis in early child development: progress, problems, and prospects.

Integration of noninvasive, biological measures into behavioral research has increased, but the interpretation of biobehavioral findings in relation to developmental outcomes is rarely straightforward. This commentary highlights the need for specific, theoretically derived hypotheses, multiple measures of behavioral and biological processes, and analytical strategies aimed at explaining interindividual differences in intraindividual change. It is suggested here that the next phase of biosocial research needs to move beyond description and toward development of mid-level theories that will enable researchers to specify, test, and refine hypotheses of how biobehavioral processes interact with social-contextual factors to influence development. These mid-level biosocial models will be necessary to determine whether individual differences in children's adrenocortical activity confer risk or resilience because of early or cumulative exposure to nonparental care.

Child Development↗

Implications of child development on the practice of oral care.

Of all patient groups, children represent perhaps the most challenging in the preventive dental practice. While technical skills must be excellent, the interpersonal skills of the clinician are also paramount to successful pediatric dentistry and are affected by where children are in their development. This article reviews the developmental stages that children experience and how age characteristics can be predictors of the dental professional's approach to ensure successful, long-term oral health care.

Adolescent↗

Divorce, single parenting, and child development.

Application of "crisis" and "social facilitation" theory to program intervention with preschool-age children was undertaken to asses the effects of a preschool education experience on recovery of psychological functions following divorce. A pretest-posttest control group design was completed using single-parent (n = 7) and two-parent (n = 8) children in an educational setting as the treatment groups and two-parent (n = 8) children at home as the control. Maternal reports on self-assesed childrearing and child's behavior were obtained during an interview, while intellectual assessments and observational data on social behavior were collected by trained observers and teachers. Little evidence could be noted that suggested weakened mother-child interaction as a function of divorce. Crisis intervention was observed to be an effective technique in assisting single-parent children toward cognitive recovery. However, it remains unclear whether social behavioral problems of single-parent children were positively affected by the crisis intervention program.

Child Development↗

The case for child development as a determinant of health.

The complex relationship between life course and social/economic-psychosocial conditions in a given society has a powerful determining effect on human health. The socioeconomic gradient emerges from a complex mixture of psychosocial and material influences operating at various levels of social aggregation and, also, a series of biological responses whose character and significance vary over the life course. Biological embedding and the "latency" and "pathways" model incorporate the notion of a critical period in development; the pathways model emphasizes the cumulative effect of life events and the ongoing importance of social/economic-psychosocial conditions throughout the life cycle. The models, although conceptually complementary, result in ideological conflict and lend themselves to different policy directions.

Child↗

A theory of marks and mind: the effect of notational systems on hominid brain evolution and child development with an emphasis on exchanges between mothers and children.

A model of human language requires a theory of meaningful marks. Humans are the only species who use marks to think. A theory of marks identifies children's scribbles as significant behavior, while hypothesizing the importance of rotational systems to hominid brain evolution. By recognizing the importance of children's scribbles and drawings in developmental terms as well as in evolutionary terms, a marks-based rather than a predominantly speech-based theory of the human brain, language, and consciousness emerges. Combined research in anthropology, primatology, art history, neurology, child development (including research with deaf and blind children), gender studies and literacy suggests the importance of notational systems to human language, revealing the importance of mother/child interactions around marks and sounds to the development of an expressive, communicative, symbolic human brain. An understanding of human language is enriched by identifying marks carved on bone 1.9 million years ago as observational lunar calendar-keeping, pushing proto-literacy back dramatically. Neurologically, children recapitulate the meaningful marks of early hominins when they scribble and draw, reminding us that literacy belongs to humankind's earliest history. Even more than speech, such meaningful marks played - and continue to play - decisive roles in human brain evolution. The hominid brain required a model for integrative, transformative neural transfer. The research strongly suggests that humankind's multiple literacies (art, literature, scientific writing, mathematics and music) depended upon dyadic exchanges between hominid mothers and children, and that this exchange and sharing of visuo-spatial information drove the elaboration of human speech in terms of syntax, grammar and vocabulary. The human brain was spatial before it was linguistic. The child scribbles and draws before it speaks or writes. Children babble and scribble within the first two years of life. Hands and mouths are proximal on the sensory-motor cortex. Gestures accompany speech. Illiterate brains mis-pronounce nonsense sounds. Literate brains do not. Written language (work of the hands) enhances spoken language (work of the mouth). Until brain scans map the neurological links between human gesture, speech and marks in the context of mother/caregiver/child interactions, and research with literate and illiterate brains document even more precisely the long-term differences between these brains, the evolutionary pressure of marks on especially flexible maternal and infant brain tissue that occurred 1.9 million years, radically changing primate brain capabilities, requires an integrated theory of marks and mind.

Animals↗

Older adolescent females' knowledge of child development norms.

This study, the first of three designed to investigate different age groups' knowledge of developmental norms of children, focused on older adolescent female university students. Data were collected from 280 midwestern university students through a questionnaire consisting of 16 items focusing on physical and social development of children from birth to three years of age. Results showed that knowledge of normal development was both over- and underestimated regardless of age of student or year in school. These findings are discussed within the context of the importance of knowledge of developmental norms for future parents.

Adolescent↗

The effect of pregnancy intention on child development.

In this paper, we use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate the empirical link between unintended pregnancy and child health and development. An important contribution of our study is the use of information on siblings to control for unmeasured factors that may confound estimates of the effect of pregnancy intentions on infant and child outcomes. Results from our study indicate that unwanted pregnancy is associated with prenatal and postpartum maternal behaviors that adversely affect infant and child health, but that unwanted pregnancy has little association with birth weight and child cognitive outcomes. Estimates of the association between unwanted pregnancy and maternal behaviors were greatly reduced after controls for unmeasured family background were included in the model. Our results also indicate that there are no significant differences in maternal behaviors or child outcomes between mistimed and wanted pregnancies.

Adolescent↗

Reforms and child development.

Since their inception in the 1930s, U.S. welfare and income support programs have played an important role in providing benefits to children. Unlike programs directly targeted to children, however, welfare programs are designed to produce economic and employment impacts on adults, so that any effects on children would be indirect. This article explores the influence of such programs on children's well-being and development, first by defining goals for children's healthy development, then by proposing a framework for understanding the impact of welfare policies on children. A review of the literature within each component of this framework reveals the following: Measures of children's well-being should encompass physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development. The physical and material environment, family environment, and social and community environment can all affect a child's healthy development. Policies designed to increase maternal employment, reduce welfare use, and strengthen families do not necessarily lead to more positive environmental contexts and increased child well-being. The author concludes that to ensure positive impacts on children, welfare and income support policies must move beyond their exclusive emphasis on adults and include goals that focus on improving children's social and physical environments at home and in the community.

Adolescent↗

Is this child developing properly? A practical tool for monitoring.

The developmental picture of a child can be appreciated only by regular comparison of the child's progress with normal milestones for age in an organized and systematic manner. The Kansas Infant Development Screen (KIDS) chart is a useful instrument for this very important element of well-child visits. It is simple to use and easily interpreted by health care providers and parents.

Aging↗

Child development and emergent literacy.

Emergent literacy consists of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to reading and writing. This article offers a preliminary typology of children's emergent literacy skills, a review of the evidence that relates emergent literacy to reading, and a review of the evidence for linkage between children's emergent literacy environments and the development of emergent literacy skills. We propose that emergent literacy consists of at least two distinct domains: inside-out skills (e.g., phonological awareness, letter knowledge) and outside-in skills (e.g., language, conceptual knowledge). These different domains are not the product of the same experiences and appear to be influential at different points in time during reading acquisition. Whereas outside-in skills are associated with those aspects of children's literacy environments typically measured, little is known about the origins of inside-out skills. Evidence from interventions to enhance emergent literacy suggests that relatively intensive and multifaceted interventions are needed to improve reading achievement maximally. A number of successful preschool interventions for outside-in skills exist, and computer-based tasks designed to teach children inside-out skills seem promising. Future research directions include more sophisticated multidimensional examination of emergent literacy skills and environments, better integration with reading research, and longer-term evaluation of preschool interventions. Policy implications for emergent literacy intervention and reading education are discussed.

Achievement↗