期刊名称：International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities
印刷版ISSN：2250-0715
电子版ISSN：2248-9010
出版年度：2012
卷号：3
期号：2
页码：96-108
出版社：International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities
摘要：Cognitive development of young children has always been a matter of concern, especially for the disadvantaged groups in India. The Government of India has initiated several programmes with a view to stimulate the cognitive development of these groups. Integrated Child Development Services Scheme, one of the largest child welfare programmes in the world also includes this aspect of development in its objectives. The focus of the present paper is on the study of differences in cognitive skills of young children attending anganwadi centers (AW group)and utilizing preschool services of ICDS and those who are not attending any preschool education program (HB group) so as to assess the possible effect of preschool education in anganwadi centers on these skills. Six cognitive skills namely conceptual skills, information, comprehension, visual perception, memory and object vocabulary were selected for investigation. The results obtained after data analysis revealed that anganwadi children performed better scores consistently across all dimensions as compared to home based children. Gender differences and developmental progression has also been observed. Females in both the groups scored higher than males on Conceptual skills. Age trend showed increase in Cognitive development of Anganwadi children with increase in age whereas the Home Based Children in 5-6 years of age showed declining trend on the indicators of Information and Object Vocabulary. Observations conducted to assess the context of development revealed several stimulating objects and persons observed in the anganwadi setting, thus accounting for the differences. Home as a context however, was also seen to be a place of active stimulation which could be utilized further. ICDS centers in Jammu exhibit several unique characteristics in the aspects of cultural context and the current situation due to turmoil in J & K state. An assessment of effect of intervention due to stimulation provided at anganwadi centers could help the planners build up data base at the national level and make policies specific for this area. The research findings also have implications for improvement of ICDS centers and for enhancing cognitive development of children in Jammu.
关键词：Integrated child development services; Cognitive development; Preschool;children; Early intervention; ICDS impact; Thought.
