Interventional effect of early education on infants' intellectual development

Lili TIAN; Liping LI; Mei HAN

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Early education is an important step in raising children. Many facts prove that early education can promote infants' intellectual development so as to lay good foundation for their future development.

OBJECTIVE:

To understand the status of infants' intellectual development with Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and analyze the effects of early education.

DESIGN:

Comparative observation.

SETTING:

Wards of the Department of Pediatrics and Department of Obstetrics, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital University of Medical Sciences.

PARTICIPANTS:

We recruited 100 normal newborn infants born in the Department of Obstetrics, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital University of Medical Sciences, between January 2000 and December 2001. Guardians of the infants were informed of the research objective. Infants were divided into 2 groups according to their birth date early education group (n=50) in which the infants were born on Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday; control group (n=50) in which the infants were bom on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday.

METHODS:

① All the parents of the infants in the two groups received the guidance of feeding, infection prevention, inoculation and other health care guidance. On this basis, the parents of the infants in early education group were informed of intellectual development disciplinarian and educational guideline for 0-3 year-old infants when physical examination was performed on the infants at newborn period (twice) and 42 days after birth (once). The parents were asked to raise their infant according to the requirements of the guideline and communicate with the physicians at any moment. In control group, routine physical examination was performed on the infants at new-born period (twice) and 42 days after birth (once), and their parents were not given the early education of pediatric system. ② At 4 months and 3 days to 4 months and 29 days after birth, the infants in the two groups were taken back to hospital. Status of intellectual development was evaluated with intelligence scale for children revised and standardized by the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Children Development Center according to Bayley's Scales of Infant Development [It consisted of intellectual scale and movement scale. Intellectual scale was used for 4.0-5.3 months babies (4 items, Item E reaching out for building blocks, hand-eye coordination when reaching out, pick up building blocks, and keeping reaching out for things; Item G noticed small pills; Item H approached ocular; Item C fond of playing with him).Movement scale was used for 4.0-5.3 months babies (4 items, Item A turning their heads freely; Item E from lying on the back to lying on the side;Item D part of pollex face to face when holding building blocks; Item Ccould sit independently for a moment)]. The primary scores of the infant was obtained from the number of an item which the infant could complete in intellectual development scale, then intellectual index and psychological movement development index were obtained according to his age span from the scale. Those with scores ＞130 were considered excellent, and those with scores ＜ 69 were mental retardation. ③ t test and U test were used in comparison of the differences in metrical and quantitative data.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

① Comparison of intellectual development index and psychological development index between the infants in the two groups. ② Status of infants' intellectual scale and movement scale completion.

RESULTS:

Totally 100 infants entered the result analysis. ① Intellectual development Intellectual development index and psychological movement development index were significantly higher in early education group than in control group (103.94±7.64, 111.20±9.40; 93.92±5.18,99.22±5.52, t=8.3,4.7, P ＜ 0.01). ② Status of intellectual scale completion The number of infants who could complete Items E, D and C was obviously greater in early education group than in control group [36 infants (72%), 8 infants (16%), u=5.6, P ＜ 0.01]. ③ Status of movement scale completion The number of infants who could complete Items E, D and C was obviously greater in early education group than in control group [45 in fants (90%), 32 infants (64%), 48 infants (96%); 30 infants (60%), 12 infants (24%), 42 infants (84%), u=2.0-4.89, P ＜ 0.05-0.01].

CONCLUSION:

Early education can improve infants' intellectual development, especially manipulative ability.