Infancy, Child Nutrition & Development

Biography

Biography: Saeed Valadi

Abstract

Kindergarten as a preschool institute can have positive but different effects on the awareness level of families to provide a better home environment for motor development. The present study aimed at comparing the affordances in the home environment for motor development among non-daycare and daycare children. This study was cross-sectional and applied. The studied included families having children aged 18- to 42 months living in Tehran, Iran. Fifteen health centers were randomly selected by multistage cluster sampling. Among these centers, 247 children’s parents volunteered at involved in the study (104 attended daycare and 143 were non-daycare). Homes were assessed using the Persian translation of the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development-Self-Report. The findings were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Mann–Whitney non-parametric tests, Pearson correlation tests, and Eta tests. The results indicated a significant difference between the level of affordances in the home environment for motor development among non-daycare and daycare children. That is, there was a significant difference between four dimensions of inside space, variety of stimulation, gross-motor toys, and fine-motor toys for the two groups. The daycare group received higher scores in three dimensions of inside space, fine- and gross-motor toys and the non-daycare children obtained high scores in variety of stimulation. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of outside space. Based on the total AHEMD score, daycare children used more opportunities to move in the home environment than the non-daycare due. Furthermore, the level of affordances in the home environment for the motor development of daycare children appears to be more favorable and of a higher quality and quantity than the setting for non-daycare children