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Normative data on mental and motor development in Nigerian children
1Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine University of Lagos. ainafran@yahoo.com
Insights
This study established new psychomotor development norms for Nigerian children, finding higher scores in motor and personal-social domains compared to Western data. This provides crucial local benchmarks for child development assessment.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Health
Background:
- Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, has historically relied on Caucasian data for child developmental assessments.
- This reliance may not accurately reflect the psychomotor development of local populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish normative data for psychomotor development specific to Nigerian children.
- To address the gap created by the over-reliance on non-local developmental data.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study included 128 children across eight age groups (8-30 months).
- Developmental Screening Inventory (DSI) and Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID) were used for assessment.
- Data collection involved trained research assistants and blind scoring to minimize bias.
Main Results:
- Nigerian children scored above established normal values across five developmental fields.
- Higher scores were observed in motor and personal-social domains, particularly in younger age groups (8, 16, 32 weeks).
- Findings indicate a divergence from Western developmental data.
Conclusions:
- The derived normative data holds significant clinical value for Nigerian healthcare practitioners.
- This data will aid pediatricians, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists in accurate child development assessments.
- Establishing local developmental benchmarks is essential for effective pediatric care in Nigeria.
Background:
In Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa at large, there has been heavy reliance on the "Caucasian data" in the developmental assessment of children. Hence, this study set out to establish normative data for psychomotor development on Nigerian children.
Study Design:
One hundred and twenty eight children distributed equally to eight different integrative age groups between 8 weeks and 30 months were included in the cross-sectional study. The subjects were assessed for the five fields of development using Developmental Screening Inventory (DSI) and Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID): a screening and performance instruments respectively. A trained research assistant administered the DSI on each of the subjects, and the scores made blind to the researchers until after the subject's assessment with the BSID within maximum of 24 hours interval.
Results:
The subjects scored above the normal values in the five fields of development for each of the instruments. Furthermore, from the normative data derived, there were high scores in the motor and personal -social fields, especially among subjects in the lower age groups of 8,16,and 32 weeks when compared to data from the western world.
Conclusion:
It is concluded that this normative data will be of much clinical value to practitioners in Nigeria, especially the pediatricians, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, etc.
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