The cumulative effect of environmental deprivation on cognitive development in early childhood

Abstract

The present study investigates the cumulative effect of environmental. deprivation on children's cognitive functioning. It was hypothesized that (1) Three year old children attending educational preschools would perform better in cognitive functioning than the same age children raised at home, (2) Five year old children attending educational preschools would perform better in cognitive functioning than the same age children raised at home, (3) the difference in cognitive functioning between children attending educational preschools and raised at home would be greater in the five year old group compared to three year old group. Classification and seriation tasks devised by Piaget were administered as measures of cognitive functioning to 120 Low SES children at two age levels, 3 and 5, half of them attending education preschools and half raised at home. Results indicated no significant difference between the educational preschool children and home reared children at either age. The only significant difference was found between the two three year old groups in terms of classification behavior. The results, being insignificant, didnot support the main hypothesis that there would be a greater difference between the two groups of elder children because of longer exposure to environmental deprivation.