Effect of Psychosocial Stimulation on Mental Development of Severely Malnourished Children: An Interim Report

The effect of adding psychosocial stimulation to the treatment of severely malnourished children was studied. The study period covered children from the time they left the hospital to 24 months later. The children's developmental levels (DQs) were compared with those of two other groups who were in the hospital—an adequately nourished group with diseases other than malnutrition, and a severely malnourished group who received standard hospital care only. The children receiving intervention had structured play sessions in the hospital and were visited weekly for 2 years after returning home. During the visits paraprofessionals showed mothers how to continue structured play with their children. The malnourished children who did not receive intervention showed a marked deficit in developmental level compared with that of control children throughout the study. The control children showed a decline in developmental level with age, which is characteristic of disadvantaged children. The children receiving intervention showed marked improvements and by 24 months were ahead of the children who did not receive intervention in every subscale and were ahead of the adequately nourished children in two subscales. Both groups of malnourished children remained behind the control children in nutritional status and locomotor development.

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Development of Severely Malnourished Children Who Received Psychosocial Stimulation: Six-Year Follow-up

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.79.2.247 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 79 (2) ◽

pp. 247-254 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sally Grantham-McGregor ◽

William Schofield ◽

Christine Powell

Keyword(s):

Home Visiting ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Severe Malnutrition ◽

The Third ◽

Malnourished Children ◽

Catching Up ◽

Psychosocial Stimulation ◽

Catch Up ◽

Home Visiting Program

The development of 16 children who were hospitalized for severe malnutrition and participated in a home-visiting program of psychosocial stimulation was compared with that of two other groups who were also hospitalized but received standard medical care only: severely malnourished group (n = 18) and an adequately nourished one (n = 20). All groups were assessed regularly on the Griffiths Mental Development Scales and the Stanford-Binet test. Both groups of malnourished children were markedly behind the adequately nourished group on admission to the hospital and the group that received no intervention showed little sign of catching up. The intervention group caught up to the adequately nourished group in 2 years. This report covers the third year of home-visiting and the 3 years following its cessation. The intervention group showed a decline in three of the five Griffiths subscales. However, they retained a marked advantage over the nonintervention group of malnourished children on the Stanford-Binet test until the end of follow-up, showing no further decline in the last year. For height, both malnourished groups failed to catch up to the adequately nourished group. It was concluded that a relatively simple intervention can benefit the development of severely malnourished children.

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The social environment of malnourished children compared with that of other children in Jamaica

Journal of Biosocial Science ◽

10.1017/s002193200001316x ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 19-30 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

M. L. Sheffer ◽

S. M. Grantham-McGregor ◽

S. J. Ismail

Keyword(s):

Protein Energy Malnutrition ◽

The Other ◽

Malnourished Children ◽

Protein Energy ◽

The Social ◽

Catch Up ◽

Home Stimulation ◽

Different Cultures ◽

Poor Neighbourhood ◽

Malnourished Group

SummaryThis investigation was part of a longitudinal study of mental development of seventeen Jamaican children who were admitted to hospital with severe protein energy malnutrition. The children were compared with 20 adequately nourished children who were admitted to hospital for other reasons.Previous research had shown that, 1 month after the children left hospital, both groups had similar scores on a modified Caldwell Inventory of Home Stimulation. When, in the present investigation, the inventory was repeated 24 months later, scores remained similar in both groups. When compared with data collected from a survey in a poor neighbourhood, again the scores of the neighbourhood children were similar to those of the malnourished group. The malnourished children were however living in poorer houses and had failed to catch up to the other groups in nutritional status.Comparison of these findings with those from other countries suggests that the ecology of malnutrition differs in different cultures and that Jamaican mothers of malnourished children are characterized by poverty rather than poor maternal–child relationships.It also appears that, at this age, poor levels of home stimulation were not a major factor in producing the deficit in development manifested by the malnourished group.

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Effects of psychosocial stimulation on improving home environment and child-rearing practices: results from a community-based trial among severely malnourished children in Bangladesh

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/1471-2458-12-622 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Baitun Nahar ◽

Md Iqbal Hossain ◽

Jena D Hamadani ◽

Tahmeed Ahmed ◽

Sally Grantham-McGregor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Home Environment ◽

Child Rearing ◽

Community Based ◽

Malnourished Children ◽

Psychosocial Stimulation

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Questioning Skills among Advantaged and Disadvantaged Children in First Grade

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1970.27.2.617 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 617-618 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Felix Martin

Keyword(s):

Creative Thinking ◽

First Grade ◽

Developmental Level ◽

Question Asking ◽

Disadvantaged Children ◽

Category System

The evaluation of questioning skills among 200 first-grade Ss (100 advantaged and 100 disadvantaged) on the question-asking activity of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking utilized an 11-category system of classification for analysis. A comparison of the categories indicate that the disadvantaged Ss seem to be at a lower developmental level of question-asking skills than their advantaged counterparts.

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