Infants Around the World: Cross-Cultural Studies of Psychomotor Development from Birth to Two Years

Abstract

Comparisons were made of the findings of fifty cross-cultural studies of psychomotor development, from birth to two years, of contemporary groups of infants on five continents. The effects of ethnicity, amount and type of caretaker stimulation, and nutritional status were discussed. African infants showed the greatest early acceleration, Caucasian infants the least, while Latin American and Asian infants ranked intermediate. Within each ethnic group, "traditionally" reared, rural infants showed greater motor acceleration than "Westernized, " urban infants in the first six to twelve months, and a greater decline, after weaning, in adaptive and language development, in the second year. Within both traditional and Westernized samples of the same ethnic groups, infants with higher birthweight were more accelerated.

Socioeconomic status, anthropometric status, and psychomotor development of Kenyan children from resource-limited settings: A path-analytic study

“…Earlier studies in nonwestern settings also had indicated that westernization and modernization influence childrearing practices which in turn influence the acquisition rate of psychomotor skills. In an extensive literature review, Werner [48] indicates that after controlling for aspects such as birth weight and weaning (which influences protein intake especially in those living in poverty), there is a unique and distinct influence of westernization vs. traditional rearing practices on motor outcomes. An interesting question for future studies to examine is whether more direct measures of child stimulation and environmental learning opportunities than provided by our SES measures would also show a direct relationship with psychomotor status.…”

Socio-Economic Bias in Piaget’s Theory and Its Implications for Cross-Culture Studies

“…On the contrary, they 'lag' significantly behind African infants of their age group (Geber, 1957;Werner, 1972), and within Western society there is not yet a class distinction in test performance (Golden and Birns, 1968). Furthermore, rural children perform better than urban children (Werner, 1972). (The effect of these variables is precisely the reverse in subsequent development of skills in formal abstraction.)…”

Places and Postures

“…In fact, the classic motor milestone chart with accompanying onset ages has become the gold standard of motor development and is prominently displayed in developmental textbooks, pediatrician’s offices, and parenting books. Infants from other cultures are typically described as “precocious” or “delayed” relative to norms established with Western infants (Adolph & Robinson, 2015; Werner, 1972, for review).…”