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Babies, brains and culture: optimizing neurodevelopment on the savanna
Author(s) -
DeVries MW
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1999.tb01289.x
Subject(s) - psychomotor learning , medicine , developmental psychology , context (archaeology) , infant development , child development , pregnancy , cultural influence , pediatrics , breast feeding , psychology , cognition , psychiatry , biology , social science , paleontology , genetics , sociology
Cross‐cultural child development research has demonstrated the influence of infant experience as well as constitutional, neurodevelopmental influences in infant outcomes. African infant precocity found in a number of studies is examined in the light of developmental models and in the context of the enriched child‐rearing environment of pre‐industrial societies. Examples are drawn from fieldwork in East Africa that demonstrate the different contributions of pregnancy, nutrition, early learning and cultural factors on developmental outcomes. The multiple enhancing infant rearing and nutritional factors are postulated to optimize the rate of neuro‐development thereby contributing to psychomotor precocity.