Escala Argentina de Inteligencia Sensorio-Motriz (EAIS): Percentiles nacionales / Argentine Scale of Sensor Motor Intelligence: National percentiles

RESUMEN

El estudio del desarrollo psicomotor de niños menores de 3 años permite observar que algunas veces, el área intelectual no es considerada en su real dimensión, como un logro específico de los niños en ese período. La Escala Argentina de Inteligencia Sensorio-motriz (EAIS) es el primer instrumento creado en Argentina para la evaluación del desarrollo cognitivo en bebés de 6 a 30 meses. Dado que no se contaba con percentiles nacionales en niños argentinos, se propuso como objetivo la realización de una validación nacional de la EAIS. La muestra estuvo conformada por niños nacidos a término, sin patología y con un desarrollo psicomotor normal, provenientes de 10 provincias argentinas. Se conformaron grupos interdisciplinarios de trabajo en las provincias participantes para la evaluación del desarrollo cognitivo mediante la administración de la EAIS. Se logró una muestra total de 800 niños. Se construyeron tablas de percentiles nacionales para la EAIS a partir del estadío mediano obtenido en la prueba y para cada una de las series que la conforman. Los resultados permiten observar que el 72.25% de los niños obtuvieron percentiles normales, el 27.75% restante obtuvo percentiles de riesgo y retraso en la inteligencia sensorio-motriz. A partir de estos resultados se encuentra una progresión de la inteligencia gradual y cuasi-continua ella no evoluciona más por saltos, y hacia delante, sino como una rampa con períodos de mesetas y vuelta atrás de falsos pasos.

ABSTRACT

The psychomotor development assessment in children younger than 3 years old allow us to realize that, sometimes, the intellectual area of development is not considered as it should be; i.e., as a specific achievement during that period of development. The Argentine Scale of Sensor Motor Intelligence (EAIS) is the first scale to assess cognitive development from Argentina. Until now we did not have national percentiles, so we decided to perform a study focusing on the national validation of the EAIS. The national validation of the Argentine Scale of Sensor motor Intelligence was performed with the aim of determining national percentiles for Argentinean children from 6 to 30 month old. The sample consisted of full-term infants (> 37 weeks of gestation), without any pathology and with a normal psychomotor development. The sample was collected from 10 Argentine provinces Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Salta, Misiones, Chaco, Río Negro, Santa Cruz, and Mendoza. We organized interdisciplinary working groups in each of the ten provinces, in order to evaluate infant cognitive development in children from each Argentinean provinces through administration of the EAIS, and to perform national percentiles for the EAIS. The procedure for the realization of this work consisted in four stages The first stage of this work consisted in the call, invitation and training to professional staff from different provinces of Argentina, to participate of the present research. A total of 30 professionals from 10 provinces decided to participate. During the second stage we proceeded to the administration of the EAIS by each of the staff of trained professionals in each of the provinces. In the third stage we achieved to collect a total sample of 800 infants from 10 Argentine provinces. Fourth stage the realization of national percentiles tables for the EAIS and the transfer of results to scientific community is the principal aim of the present paper. We evaluated a total sampleof 800 children from 6 to 30 month old. To assess the psychomotor development, the Prueba Nacional de Pesquisa (PRUNAPE) was applied to the whole sample of 800 children. Then, we evaluated the cognitive development through administration of the EAIS, to each child that had obtained a normal psychomotor development in the PRUNAPE. We then performed national percentiles for the EAIS from the results of this analysis. Results show us that from a total of 800 children, 578 (72.25%) obtained normal cognitive development (percentile 50 or higher), 112 children (14%) obtained risk percentiles (percentile 25) and the 110 remaining children (13.75%) obtained results within delay percentiles (10 percentile or less). In conclusion, the 27.75% of children achieved a sensor motor intelligence development below that expected in relation to the age. That percentage was similar to what we have found in previous research. We didn’t find significant differences between provinces in relation to children’s cognitive development. In previous research we found that only the 20% of 24-month-old children had completed VI stage of sensor motor intelligence. We consider by this study an important aim was to investigate at what age Argentinean children usually complete this stage. We prove that Argentinean children usually complete VI stage of sensor motor intelligence about 30-month-old, unlike Jean Piaget´s postulations. He considered that children often complete VI stage of sensor motor intelligence around the 24-month-old. From the results, we suggest that there is a gradual and quasi-continuous progression of the intelligence, i.e., intelligence does not seem to evolve by leaps according to the ladder model instead it develops as a ramp with some retrogression and missteps.