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The association between under-nutrition, school performance and perceptual motor functioning in first-grade South
1Focus area of PHaSRec, Faculty of Health Science, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Insights
Under-nutrition, specifically stunting and wasting, negatively impacts early childhood school performance and motor skills. Addressing these nutritional deficits is crucial for academic success and overall well-being.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Nutritional Science
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Early childhood growth is critical for neurodevelopment and learning.
- Under-nutrition poses risks to cognitive development and academic achievement.
- The relationship between malnutrition, motor skills, and school performance in young children requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the association between under-nutrition indicators and school performance.
- To determine the link between under-nutrition and motor functioning skills in first-grade learners.
Main Methods:
- Utilized baseline data from the NW-CHILD longitudinal study in South Africa.
- Assessed 816 first-grade learners using standardized tests for motor skills and teacher-based assessments for academic performance.
- Defined under-nutrition using Z-scores for stunting (height-for-age) and wasting/underweight (body mass index).
Main Results:
- Stunting (HAZ) and underweight (weight-for-age) significantly correlated with poorer school performance and motor skills (p < 0.05).
- Visual perception showed a moderate association with mathematics in stunted and wasted children.
- Children with stunting and wasting exhibited significantly poorer motor functioning compared to their peers.
Conclusions:
- Moderate stunting and wasting negatively affect school performance and motor skills in early learners.
- Impaired visual-perceptual abilities in stunted/wasted children are linked to deficits in cognitive processing and academic performance.
- Early intervention for nutritional deficiencies is essential to prevent long-term academic and developmental consequences.
Background:
Early childhood is characterised by an immense spurt of growing and learning where under-nutrition can have adverse effects on the neuro-developmental health and school performance of children. A full understanding of the relationship between school performance and motor functioning skills and malnourishment in school beginners is still lacking.
Aim:
To determine the association between indices of under-nutrition and how it relates to school performance and motor functioning skills of first-grade learners.
Setting:
North West province (NWP) of South Africa (SA).
Method:
The baseline data of the stratified, randomised North-West Child Health Integrated with Learning and Development (NW-CHILD) longitudinal study were used. Grade 1 learners (N = 816, 420 boys, 396 girls, mean age 6.78+ years) from four school districts in the NWP of SA took part in the study. Indices of under-nutrition were determined by Z-scores (-2 standard deviation [s.d.]) for stunting (height-for-age [HAZ]) and wasting and underweight (Z-score for body mass index) using the 2007 World Health Organization reference sample. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency Short Form and the Visual Motor Integration fourth edition were used to assess different aspects of motor functioning, while school performance in mathematics, reading and writing was assessed by teachers according to the National South African standards of assessments.
Results:
Both HAZ and Z-score for weight-for-age correlated significantly with school performance and motor functioning skills (r > 2.0, p < 0.05), while visual perception was moderately associated (r < 0.30) with mathematics in HAZ and Z-score for weight-for-height (WHZ) children. Motor functioning of HAZ and WHZ children was significantly poorer (p < 0.05) compared to typical children, while underweight was not associated with any outcome variables.
Conclusion:
Moderate forms of stunting and wasting influence school performance and motor functioning of school beginners negatively, while an association between visual perceptual abilities and inferior mathematics, reading and writing suggests a close link with inferior cognitive information processing in stunted and wasted children. These barriers should be addressed as poor scholastic success in Grade 1 may influence future school performance and the subsequent well-being of children.
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