Influence of Home Environment on Psychomotor Development of Infants in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh

The study focuses on the influence of home environment on psychomotor development of infants through stimulatory intervention on a sample of 145 male and female infants of age birth to 18 months from two villages, one of which served as experimental group and the other control group. A modified version of Home inventory by Bradley and Caldwell was used to know the home environment in addition to the Bayley’s Scale of Infant Development (BSID) which was used to assess motor development of infants. Intervention focusing on aspects of home environment and developmental milestones of infants was provided to mothers of infants along with necessary stimulation to infants was provided to the experimental group while no such experience was given to the control group. All the infants were pre and post tested after the intervention period. The results revealed significant differences in home environment, motor age and psychomotor developmental indices between the experimental and control group infants. A significant association was also found between home environment and psychomotor developmental indices of infants. During infancy, two major kinds of development that takes place are the mental development and motor development. Motor development means the development of control over body movements which results in increasing coordination between various parts of body. Through the sensory and motor experiences of the first few months, the child develops perceptual abilities and motor skills. Delay in achievement of various motor and mental abilities affects the child in many ways. Research by Swaminathan (1989) has shown that sensory stimulation from the environment affects the functioning of neural pathways and the better these are developed the better the child is able to respond to stimuli. Each child needs an experientially rich environment for his / her development. However, this richness is not merely the richness reflected by costly clothes, good food or expensive toys but it is the richness of experience in terms of parent child interaction and parental aspirations. A home in which the child gets and opportunity to listen to good stories, to play with varieties of objects and adults, is perhaps the riches home so far as the young child is concerned. As mentioned earlier that development is highly influenced by a good home environment which involves parental participation in child’s activities. Deprivation in such experiences in the 226 SHUBHANGNA SHARMA AND SHIPRA NAGAR early years could lead to delay in attainment of developmental tasks and would eventually lead to delayed learning. It is the immediate environment of the infants that has an effect on his development, both physical and psychological. Proper opportunities are not available to the children living in rural areas for developing their potentials to the maximum. These potentials can be enhanced by providing them activities through a comprehensive intervention programmes. The present study investigates the association between motor development and home environment of infants by providing scientific and need based intervention to infants and their mothers in rural areas of Himachal Pradesh through an experimental pre and post research design. MATERIALS AND METHODS For the present study, a sample of 145 male and female infants in the age group of birth to eighteen months were selected from two villages in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. One of the villages, Bundla, served as an experimental group and the other village, Kandi, served as control group. The experimental group consisted of 69 infants and were brought to a Farm Crèche, established in the village as a part of the study and were provided necessary intervention. The control group consisted of 76 infants and were devoid of any such experience. The study adopted a semi-longitudinal approach of assessing development of infants upto 36 months with final testing at 36 months of age. The home environment of the infants in both groups were measured through a modified version of Home Inventory by Bradley and Caldwell. Baylay’s Scale of Infant Development (BSID) was used to assess the motor development of infants. The scale consisted of 79 items to measure motor development of infants from birth to 36 months. Only such items which were appropriate for the age were administered to the infants. The summated raw scores were converted to standard scores or psychomotor developmental indices and were categorized as follows: The intervention programme consisted of giving age appropriate toys and play materials and different activities for enhancing language, social and emotional development. The mothers of these infants were also provided with information regarding aspects of promoting good home environment, like giving variety to children, importance of parental involvement, stimulatory toys and play materials, safety at home and understanding children’s developmental milestones. The intervention was provided to mothers of experimental group infants through lectures and discussions for a period of eighteen months and the infants in both groups were post tested after providing intervention. Infants were tested twice, i.e. prior to the intervention and after intervention. Data was tabulated and statistical analysis was conducted to know the significant differences between the two groups. The data was analysed by applying chi-square test to know the association between Psychomotor Development Index and home environment of infants. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results of the impact of intervention on home environment and psychomotor development of infants are presented in the tables 1 to 3. Table 1 reveals the mean scores of infants regarding motor age, psychomotor development indices and home environment with respect to pre and post testing of experimental and control groups. It can be observed that infants in both group had similar levels of mean scores with regard to the variables during pretest. An increase in their scores was observed in the category of motor age during post testing of infants. The Psychomotor Developmental Index (PDI) is the index of rate of motor development of infants and it can be seen that although there was an increase in the motor age but the PDI levels showed a decrease in the control group, thus depicting that infants were not able to perform activities appropriate of their age. This was not the case in experimental group where infants showed increase in motor age as well as their indices and were far above their counterparts in the control Category Scores Low 59 to 64 Average 65 to 70 High > 70