Socio-Economic Status May Associate Different Risk(s) with Early Childhood Caries (ECC) That Can Cause the Development of Psychomotor Deficiency in Preschool Children Aged 3–6 Years Old: The Results of Preliminary Analysis from a Cohort Study

Background: We have recently shown that there is a positive correlation between severe caries and developing psychomotor deficiency in preschool children. To fully re-assess such a relationship, we embarked on a 3-year longitudinal follow-up study of kindergarteners, where we aimed to: (i) confirm whether early childhood caries is causally related to the development of psychomotor deficiency as proposed, and (ii) address any significant role or contribution of socio-economic status associated with caries–psychomotor interactions in the preschooler family cohorts studied, over time. Methods: A longitudinal study was designed where the total sum of 159 kindergarteners aged 3–6 from the central and southern regions of Taiwan were randomly selected and recruited for clinical examination of caries, together with questionnaires for personal, demographic and dietary information, socio-economic status, and the children’s psychomotor development scales which were collected and analyzed over time. Student’s t test, chi-squared test, correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression analysis with R2 determinants were employed to assess any attributable differences (of 0~1) between SES vs. psychomotor manifests and caries measured among all variables computed. Results: The results of our preliminary analyses show that: (i) there was likely a causal relationship between caries activities and aspects of general development scale via the Chinese Child Development Inventory over time (4.01 ± 3.47 vs. 5.88 ± 2.58, respectively) in the 3–6-year-old preschoolers, and (ii) there was significantly more attributable influence (via higher R-squared values) from SES and psychomotor manifests than that of caries and the Chinese Child Development Inventory counterparts, as detected over time. Conclusion: Collectively, the resulting analyses support our previous findings and confirm that there is likely a causal relationship between severe caries and psychomotor deficiency in growing preschoolers; the resulting analyses revealed that such causally related interactions may be attributably explainable by a content-reliant association via socio-economic status analyzed in the kindergartener family cohorts studied. Thus, the socio-economic status or its constituents/factors will have a much broader influence not only associated with developing early childhood caries (a biologic trait), but also for psychomotor deficiency (a social trait) in vulnerable children at risk.

Association between infant and young child feeding patterns and speech and language disorders

Introduction. Feeding patterns include manners in which a child is fed during infancy and early childhood in order to provide him with appropriate nutrients that will enable his proper growth and development. The purpose of the present study was to determine the association between the dominant feeding patterns in early childhood and the manifestation of speech and language disorders in children aged 3 to 6 years. Material and Methods. A crosssectional study was conducted during 2020 - 2021 and it included 100 children of typical development, aged 3 to 6 years. The research used the Child Development Inventory, as a developmental screening instrument. The questionnaire on feeding patterns was designed for the purpose of this research. For data entry and processing, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 20.0 software was used. Results. There were no significant differences between the age categories of children in terms of deviations in the development of expressive and receptive speech. Most of the examined children (55%) were bottle-fed, whereas the remaining 45% were breastfed. A significantly higher percentage of bottle-fed children showed a deviation in the development of expressive and receptive speech compared to children who were breastfed for at least the first 6 months (74.5% versus 8.9%). Conclusion. Bottle-fed children showed a greater number of deviations in the development of both expressive and receptive speech, compared to breastfed children. Deviations in speech and language development were registered at each examined age, which means that speech and language disorders are not detected and treated in a timely manner.

Knowledge of child development: Associations among pre-service teachers’ level of education and work experience

Historically, in the USA context child development content knowledge has been one of the main emphases of early childhood teacher education programs, as it is theorized that teachers need strong content knowledge if they are to teach well. Teachers gain knowledge as they move through the degree ladder, from Child Development Associate to Associates to Bachelor’s. The purpose of this study was to examine whether knowledge of child development increased as teachers gained more education. Participants in this study ( n = 98) are part of a larger dataset of an early childhood longitudinal research collaboration between a community college and a university bachelor’s completion program. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire including items on their gender, age, race/ethnicity, highest degree earned, as well as current employment and whether ongoing work was related to the field of early childhood education. Participants also completed the Knowledge of Child Development Inventory, which consists of 56 multiple-choice items of knowledge relating to child development from birth to age 3. The items in the Knowledge of Child Development Inventory are grouped into four significant areas of development: emotional, cognitive, physical, and social. In the Knowledge of Child Development Inventory, each developmental domain group consisted of 14 items with the resulting possible range of scores for each section being 0–14. A repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted that examined the effect of education level on knowledge of child development. There was a statistically significant main effect for education level on child development. Post hoc tests revealed that the participants with bachelor’s degree scored significantly higher than the participants with both a Child Development Associate and Associates. These results indicate that as students move up through the education ladder, they gain more knowledge of child development.

The relationship between chronic paediatric feeding disorders and caregiver stress

Paediatric feeding disorders (PFDs) are common. Earlier studies have shown an association between PFD and caregiver stress, but these studies have been hampered by insufficient power. This study reports stress for caregivers of children diagnosed with PFD. These caregivers were then compared to community norms of the Parental Stress Index–Short Form. Caregivers also completed the Mealtime Behaviour Questionnaire, Child Behaviour Checklist and Child Development Inventory. Linear regression and hierarchical regression analyses assessed the relationship among the variables. Caregivers of 840 children with PFD responded. Negative child behaviours and lower child developmental function predicted higher levels of total parenting stress, parental distress, parent–child dysfunctional interaction and caregiver perceptions of their child as difficult. Higher rates of child internalizing and externalizing problems and child mealtime aggression were associated with parent perceptions of their child as difficult and contributed to total parental stress. Parents of older children reported higher levels of stress, whereas parents of younger children were more likely to be defensive responders. Overall, parents of children with PFD have more caregiver-related stress. These caregivers may benefit from consultations with mental health professionals to provide the most appropriate care to affected families.

Analisis Dan Pengukuran Kesiapan Sekolah Anak Taman Kanak Kanak

Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui seberapa besar tingkat kesiapan sekolah anak. Analisa dilakukan untuk mengetahui kebutuhan yang paling diperlukan untuk meningkatkan kualitas pendidikan prasekolah di kabupaten Kudus. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode pengambilan data kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Data kuantitatif diambil dengan menggunakan alat tes psikologi Denver II, Bender-Gestalt II, Child Development Inventory (CDI), sedangkan data kualitatif menggunakan teknik observasi dan wawancara. Subjek penelitian adalah 40 anak Taman Kanak-Kanak (TK) dengan rincian 20 anak TK A dan 20 anak TK B yang terdiri dari empat TK di Kabupaten Kudus. Pemilihan subjek dalam penelitian ini menggunakan purposive sampling. Jumlah subjek penelitian terdiri dari 160 anak. Peneliti menyimpulkan dari keseluruhan data, bahwa ada perbedaan antara sekolah yang terletak di kota dan dengan sosioekonomi yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan sekolah yang berada di pinggiran kota. Walaupun secara kategorisasi tidak jauh berbeda, namun secara rata-rata skor tiap anak menunjukkan perbedaan.