Enhancing the child survival agenda to promote, protect, and support early child development

Habilidades do desenvolvimento de crianças prematuras de baixo peso e muito baixo peso

“…Therefore, prematurity offers the possibility of interfering in the brain maturational processes, leading to anatomical and structural interferences, which lead to functional deficits (29) . Evidence on the cerebral development of premature infants supports the argument that physiological immaturity explains the risks, but environmental and social factors should not be neglected (13) . Early brain immaturity associated with preterm birth and weight at birth may be important determinants of child development (14,29,30) .…”

“…The experimental groups also presented statistically significant difference in behavior compared with the control groups in the language area, with marked losses for the groups of preterm children. Some studies have reported that infants born premature present significantly lower scores on language tests compared with those of children born full term (2,4,9,13,18,20,22,24) and that there is correlation between GA and birth weight and altered language development (2,4,9) . A study did not find differences in the performance of infants born preterm and full term regarding language, cognition, and motor development (12) .…”

“…Socioeconomic status, cultural level, and environmental conditions have effects on the domains of development, mainly regarding cognitive and language performance (4,5,13,21,24,28) , and may constitute risk factors for developmental delays. The pairing of groups included children of similar socioeconomic status.…”

“…However, the nature of these deficits is not yet fully understood (11,12) considering the multiple variables involved as a result of pre-, peri-and post-natal intercurrences, GA, birth weight, intensive care management, socioeconomic and environmental factors, and the complex process subsequent to the maturational development of the infant's brain, interfering with the trajectory of typical development (3)(4)(5)13,14) . Child development is based on domains of functions related to motor, cognitive and linguistic aspects, influenced by biological, psychosocial and environmental factors (15) .…”

Ensuring healthy pregnancies, births, and babies

“…[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] Commonalities in the unfinished agenda emerge through the lens of various disciplines, emphasizing the need for more cross-disciplinary, coordinated, and integrated program approaches across the life cycle and across physical and mental maternal and child health, nutrition, and family planning. Processes for behavior change and for assessing and intervening in the broader systems within which healthcare is delivered-within communities and across multiple sectors including health, nutrition, education, child and social protection-also emerge as critical for accelerating progress.…”