Rao, N. (2014). Early childhood development and cognitive development in developing countries: A rigorous literature review. Department for International Development.
The article provides evidence that has been accumulated to determine how, why and under what conditions do early childhood interventions are more effective in the promotion of the cognitive development of the children living in the low and middle-income nations. The results of the findings from the literature review show that parental care, early stimulation, and education, nutrition and health as well as income and the comprehensive and integrated programs tend to play a vital role in determining the cognitive development of the child. Nutrition and health play a crucial role in the cognitive development of children. Those children who receive proper nutrition and have good health tend to experience rapid brain development. Also, parental care and support, as well as child-focused education interventions, can have a positive impact on the cognitive development of the child (Rao, 2014). At the same time. The income levels of the families tend to affect the cognitive development of the children because income level will affect other factors such as nutrition and health. Therefore, the cognitive development of children requires collaborative efforts involving both the child, parent, teachers and the community in a way that creates a supportive and safe environment for the child to grow.
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The psychological theory that applies to the topic is Piaget’s cognitive development theory. This is a theory that is concerned with the development of the thoughts and reasoning of a person during various stages of growth and development. In this theory, Piaget mentions the processes that influence the way we understand and interact with the world as it seeks to explain the development of thought and mental states at different stages of life ( Demetriou, Shayer & Efklides, 2016 ). The theory helps to understand how children undergo cognitive development and how their thought process develops at various stages of life. Piaget mentions four developmental stages, each having a different level of cognitive development. This theory, therefore, relates to the article because it focuses on the cognitive development of children and the processes of thought development as a child goes through different stages of life. The different stages that a child undergoes according to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development are the sensorimotor, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage. Each of these involves different cognitive development.
I like this article because it provides a connection between the cognitive development of a child and the environmental factors that determine this development. In particular, it mentions that nutrition and health, as well as parental care, can have a significant impact on the development of the child. This is true because many studies have been done to connect the development of the child and the nutrition as well as parental care. Proper nutrition with energy content food at a young age can help fasten the brain development of the child ( Ngure et al., 2014 ). At the same time, the kind of parental care that is provided to the child is useful in promoting brain development. Children who grow up in isolation without proper parental care tend to experience slow development in their brain and thus reasoning. Another thing in liked about the article is that it connects the cognitive development of the child to the environmental factors rather than the genetic factors. It is true that environmental factors have more influence in the development of the child compared to the genetic factors. The author of the article also conducted the studies in 40 developing countries while also reviewing literature from previous studies. This makes the article reliable and thus worthy of relying on for research.
References
Rao, N. (2014). Early childhood development and cognitive development in developing countries: A rigorous literature review. Department for International Development.
Demetriou, A., Shayer, M., & Efklides, A. (2016). Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development: Implications and applications for education . Routledge.
Ngure, F. M., Reid, B. M., Humphrey, J. H., Mbuya, M. N., Pelto, G., & Stoltzfus, R. J. (2014). Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), environmental enteropathy, nutrition, and early child development: making the links. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 1308 (1), 118-128.
