Abstract

DE AVILA ABURDENE, Reynaldo. Parenteral education and development of children under five years of age. Rev. bol. ped. [online]. 2004, vol.43, n.2, pp.69-72. ISSN 1024-0675.

In order to verify if the hypothesis that children cared for by better educated parents or care givers, have an earlier development, we undertook a prospective study of cases and controls applying a psychomotor developmental test. The level of education of parents and care givers was registered at the pediatric outpatient clinic of the "Caja Petrolera de Salud". 246 children under five years were included. These children happened to visit the clinic for minor illnesses or for routine medical check-ups, between the months of October and December 2002. It was determined that there is no statistically significant relation between slow development and the degree of education of the mother, father or care giver. After the age of four, language development was positively affected by the degree of education of the mother. A secondary finding was the positive co-relationship of the gross motor area and speech area. No delayed development of all four areas of development was found in any of the children.

Keywords : psychomotor development; maternal education; language.