Jump-start success. [1945015travailleursdelasanté] community help poor parents use toys and home conversations to boost the income of their children 20 years later.
Paul Gertler / UC Berkeley
It is a sad fact that children born in poverty begin disadvantage and continue to fall further behind children who are more privileged as they grow. In developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia, some 0 million children under 5 will not reach the same steps-for physical growth, educational attainment and income later as children who are less fortunate. But a new analysis of a long-term study in Jamaica shows that surprisingly simple ways to stimulate the mental development of children can have dramatic benefits later in life.
The children were participants in the study of Jamaica, a project to improve cognitive development began in the mid 1980s by health experts child Sally Grantham-McGregor of University Susan Walker College London and the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. They focused on children aged between 9 and 24 months whose growth was delayed, placing them in the bottom 5% of the height of their age and sex (easy to quantify the tonnage of extreme poverty) . Children of normal size in the same areas were also studied for comparison.
For 2 years, community health workers visited families weekly. One group received nutritional assistance only (a formulation containing 66% of recommended daily calories and vitamins and minerals). One group received a mental and social stimulation program only, and one group received stimulation and nutritional assistance. A final group had no intervention and served as a control. The mental stimulation program was to give parents simple picture books and toys handmade, and encourage them to read and sing to their children and provide the names of objects, shapes and colors. They also learned better ways to converse and respond to their toddlers. These daily interactions are not always part of the culture in low income countries, says Paul Gertler, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. "Parents may have five or six children and a few toys. They might be really working hard and have a lot of competing demands. They may not have learned to talk to their children, or scale and it is effective", they say he previous research demonstrates the importance of everyday conversation to the mental development of children. a recent study suggests that children of affluent parents are more successful in life largely because their parents longer speak their
follow-up studies. next 20 years revealed that Jamaican children who received mental stimulation had better grades and higher IQs showed fewer signs of depression, and got less fighting. the new study, reported online today in Science , focused on the economic success of young adult children. Gertler, Grantham-McGregor, Walker and his colleagues tracked 105 of the 129 children of causing stunted growth. Those who received the stimulation intervention had gained 25% more than children in the control group. Even more exciting, Gertler noted, is that they had closed the gap in physical and economic stature between themselves and the children in their neighborhoods with normal weight and height. Adding nutritional assistance to mental stimulation did not improve the results further, and food aid on its own had no effect, probably because this type of intervention must be used before the growth of a child was stunted, said Gertler.
"mental and social stimulation for about 1 year really," said Gertler. "It was enough to reduce and eventually eliminate inequalities in the long term." Gertler emphasized that interventions were inexpensive, consisting of toys, books, and conversation, cheap, high-tech gadgets like iPads, for example.
Jere Behrman, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the research, said the study is the first to demonstrate a long-term economic benefit to early intervention stimulus programs in developing countries. But it is safe to say that the program significantly reduces inequality. "a 25% increase in earnings will d improve the welfare of people who are very poor, and this is something to rejoice. But it can not reduce global inequality by many. "He noted that, although children mentally stimulated taken to other poor children who are not undernourished, their future earnings begin to compare with those of children easier.
Yet Behrman agrees that the simplicity of the interventions in the study of Jamaica is a point in his favor. "Flying world-class psychologists to work with children for hours would yield results impressive, but it would not be easy to replicate. "the methods of the study of Jamaica are now used in Bangladesh, India and Colombia. the study provides evidence that" homemade toys and weekly visits someone from within the community can also have a dramatic impact, "says Behrman.
Joan Lombardi, who was assistant secretary for the development of early childhood in the US Department of Health and Human 2011-09 of services and is now a senior adviser at the Bernard van Leer Foundation in the Hague, the Netherlands, the study adds to the growing body of research from around the world confirming that what is happening in early years has a long-term impact on health, learning and well-being. "Investing in the early years to pay back," she said. "It is time to translate this science increasingly in improving policies and new investments in young children and their families around the world."
* Clarification, June 2, 11:29: This article has been updated to clarify that, according to Jere Behrman, the study is the first to demonstrate an economic advantage for early intervention programs that focus on mental and social stimulation in developing countries. Behrman research in Guatemala has shown that programs to improve nutrition for infants and toddlers can improve earnings in adulthood.
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