A parentally-administered cognitive development assessment for children from 10 to 24 months

The Cognitive Development Questionnaire (CDQ) allows accurate assessment of cognitive development of children from 10 to 24 months by parents and caregivers in the home. It takes between one and two hours to complete over about a week. Three phases of work are described, in which the instrument is progressively refined to improve its validity and reliability. This resulting version of the CDQ shows excellent correlation with age, and with the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1993). The CDQ thus offers researchers and clinicians a useful alternative to professionally-administered cognitive assessment in infancy.

Population monitoring of language and cognitive development in Australia : the Australian early development index

The Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) is a population measure of child development. The AEDI measures Language and Cognitive Development, Social Competence, Emotional Maturity, Physical Health and Wellbeing, and Communication Skills and General Knowledge. In Australia these data are collected by teachers for children in their first full time year of schooling. The aim of this paper is to aid people's understanding and interpretation of population measures such as the AEDI. With a greater awareness of the merits and complexities of population data clinicians and allied health professionals can play a vital role in aiding communities and policy makers to interpret and act upon the data in an intelligent way. This paper is primarily descriptive providing background information on the development and use of the instrument utilizing one of the 5 developmental domains (Language and Cognitive Development) as an example. The results show a complex relationship between children residing in differing socio-economic regions, children with English as their primary or secondary language and children who are able or not able to effectively communicate in English.

An examination of the influence of maternal depression trajectories on child cognitive development and adolescent psychotic experiences

 This thesis investigated trajectories of maternal depression over time, and their influence on offspring's cognitive development in childhood and subsequent risk of psychotic experiences in early adolescence. Offspring’s IQ was also examined as a potential mediator of the relationship between maternal depression and offspring’s risk of psychotic experiences.

Apert syndrome: Factors involved in the cognitive development

Apert syndrome is characterized by craniosynostosis, symmetric syndactyly and other systemic malformations, with mental retardation usually present. The objective of this study was to correlate brain malformations and timing for surgery with neuropsychological evaluation. We also tried to determine other relevant aspects involved in cognitive development of these patients such as social classification of families and parents' education. Eighteen patients with Apert syndrome were studied, whose ages were between 14 and 322 months. Brain abnormalities were observed in 55.6% of them. The intelligence quotient or developmental quotient values observed were between 45 and 108. Mental development was related to the quality of family environment and parents' education. Mental development was not correlated to brain malformation or age at time of operation. In conclusion, quality of family environment was the most significant factor directly involved in mental development of patients with Apert syndrome.

The generational transmission of socioeconomic inequalities in child cognitive development and emotional health

Socioeconomic inequalities in the health of adults have been largely attributed to lifestyle inequalities. The cognitive development (CD) and emotional health (EH) of the child provides a basis for many of the health-related behaviours which are observed in adulthood. There has been relatively little attention paid to the way CID and EH are transmitted in the foetal and childhood periods, even though these provide a foundation for subsequent socioeconomic inequalities in adult health. The Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) is a large, prospective, pre-birth cohort study which enrolled 8556 pregnant women at their first clinic visit over the period 1981-1983. These mothers (and their children) have been followed up at intervals until 14 years after the birth. The socioeconomic status of the child was measured using maternal age, family income, and marital status and the grandfathers' occupational status. Measures of child CD and child EH were obtained at 5 and 14 years of age. Child smoking at 14 years of age was also determined. Family income was related to all measures of child CD and EH and smoking, independently of all other indicators of the socioeconomic status of the child. In addition, the grandfathers' occupational status was independently related to child CD (at 5 and 14 years of age). Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families (previous generations' socioeconomic status as well as current socioeconomic status) begin their lives with a poorer platform of health and a reduced capacity to benefit from the economic and social advances experienced by the rest of society. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systematic review of physical activity and cognitive development in early childhood

OBJECTIVES: To comprehensively review all observational and experimental studies examining the relationship between physical activity and cognitive development during early childhood (birth to 5 years). DESIGN: Systematic review. METHODS: Electronic databases were searched in July, 2014. No study design, date, or language limits were imposed on the search. Included studies had to be published, peer reviewed articles that satisfied the a priori determined population (apparently healthy children aged birth to 5 years), intervention (duration, intensity, frequency, or patterns of physical activity), comparator (various durations, intensity, or patterns of physical activity), and outcome (cognitive development) study criteria. Study quality and risk of bias were assessed in December 2014. RESULTS: A total of seven studies, representing 414 participants from five different countries met the inclusion criteria, including two observational and five experimental studies. Six studies found increased or higher duration/frequency of physical activity had statistically significant (p<0.05) beneficial effects on at least one cognitive development outcome, including 67% of the outcomes assessed in the executive function domain and 60% in the language domain. No study found that increased or higher duration/frequency of physical activity had statistically significant detrimental effects on cognitive development. Six of the seven studies were rated weak quality with a high risk of bias. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides some preliminary evidence that physical activity may have beneficial effects on cognitive development during early childhood. Given the shortage of the information and the weak quality of available evidence, future research is needed to strengthen the evidence base in this area.

Systematic review of sedentary behavior and cognitive development in early childhood

OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively review observational and experimental studies examining the relationship between sedentary behavior and cognitive development during early childhood (birth to 5years). METHOD: Electronic databases were searched in July, 2014 and no limits were imposed on the search. Included studies had to be peer-reviewed, published, and meet the a priori determined population (apparently healthy children aged birth to 5years), intervention (duration, types, and patterns of sedentary behavior), comparator (various durations, types, or patterns of sedentary behavior), and outcome (cognitive development) study criteria. Data extraction occurred in October and November 2014 and study quality and risk of bias were assessed in December 2014. RESULTS: A total of 37 studies, representing 14,487 participants from nine different countries were included. Thirty-one studies used observational study designs and six studies used experimental study designs. Across study designs, increased or higher screen time (most commonly assessed as television viewing (TV)), reading, child-specific TV content, and adult-specific TV content had detrimental (negative) associations with cognitive development outcomes for 38%, 0%, 8%, and 25% of associations reported, respectively, and beneficial (positive) associations with cognitive development outcomes for 6%, 60%, 13%, and 3% of associations reported, respectively. Ten studies were moderate quality and 27 studies were weak quality. CONCLUSIONS: The type of sedentary behavior, such as TV versus reading, may have different impacts on cognitive development in early childhood. Future research with reliable and valid tools and adequate sample sizes that examine multiple cognitive domains (e.g., language, spatial cognition, executive function, memory) are needed. Registration no. CRD42014010004.

Movement and motor development in ELBW infants at 1 year is related to cognitive and motor abilities at 4 years

A relationship between motor ability and cognitive performance has been previously reported. This study aimed to investigate the association between movement and cognitive performance at 1 and 4 years corrected age of children born less than 1000 g, and whether developmental testing of movement at 1 year is predictive of cognitive performance at 4 years. Motor development was assessed at both ages using the neurosensory motor developmental assessment (NSMDA) and motor development was classified as normal, or minimal, mild, moderate-severe dysfunction. Cognitive performance was assessed on the Griffith Mental Developmental Scale at 1 year and McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities at 4 years. Subjects included 198 children of birthweight less than 1000 g. Of these 132 children returned for follow-up at the corrected ages of both 1 and 4 years. The 66 children not included had a slight increase in gestational age, while the mothers were younger and had a lower level of education. A significant association was found between NSMDA group classification at 1 year and cognitive performance at both 1 and 4 years (p

Nature's experiment? Handedness and early childhood development

In recent years a large body of research has investigated the various factors affecting child development and the consequent impact of child development on future educational and labour market outcomes. In this article we contribute to this literature by investigating the effect of handedness on a child and given recent research demonstrating that child development strongly affects adult outcomes. Using a large nationally representative sample of young children we find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not significantly related to child health at birth, family composition, parental employment or household income. We also find robust evidence that left-handed (and mixed handed) children perform significantly worse in nearly all measures of development than right-handed children with the relative disadvantage being larger for boys than girls. Importantly these differentials cannot be explained by different socioeconomic characteristics of the household, parental attitudes or investments in learning resources.

Cord blood vitamin D and neurocognitive development are nonlinearly related in toddlers

Background Little is known about the relation between vitamin D status in early life and neurodevelopment outcomes. Objective This study was designed to examine the association of cord blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] at birth with neurocognitive development in toddlers. Methods As part of the China-Anhui Birth Cohort Study, 363 mother-infant pairs with completed data were selected. Concentrations of 25(OH)D in cord blood were measured by radioimmunoassay. Mental development index (MDI) and psychomotor development index (PDI) in toddlers were assessed at age 16–18 mo by using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. The data on maternal sociodemographic characteristics and other confounding factors were also prospectively collected. Results Toddlers in the lowest quintile of cord blood 25(OH)D exhibited a deficit of 7.60 (95% CI: −12.4, −2.82; P = 0.002) and 8.04 (95% CI: −12.9, −3.11; P = 0.001) points in the MDI and PDI scores, respectively, compared with the reference category. Unexpectedly, toddlers in the highest quintile of cord blood 25(OH)D also had a significant deficit of 12.3 (95% CI: −17.9, −6.67; P < 0.001) points in PDI scores compared with the reference category. Conclusions This prospective study suggested that there was an inverted-U–shaped relation between neonatal vitamin D status and neurocognitive development in toddlers. Additional studies on the optimal 25(OH)D concentrations in early life are needed.

Scoping study to inform the development of the new national nutrition policy for Australia

This comprehensive report (748 pages) scopes a new nutrition policy for Australia (RFT 028/1213) Australian Department of Health and Ageing. Optimum nutrition is fundamental to good health. It is essential for the normal growth and physical and cognitive development of infants and children, contributes significantly to quality of life, wellbeing and workforce productivity, enhances resistance to infection and reduces the risk of obesity, chronic disease and premature death (AIHW 2012; NHMRC 2013). This scoping study reviews the current literature to identify: - key population health issues related to diet and nutrition within the Australian population; and - where gaps in current policy are evident. The scoping study reviews the literature on past and present national and international nutrition policies, strategies (policy actions), interventions and evaluations. The study analyses the evidence from the literature review and formulates recommendations regarding the key elements of effective nutrition policies including scope, guiding principles, format, key inclusions (content), development processes, governance, implementation, timelines, monitoring and surveillance, evaluation and review to guide the development of a new comprehensive National Nutrition Policy for Australia.