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Nutrition And Child Development: Anything that seriously affects the nutrition and child development of the mother may affect the physical development of the child (5, 1949). The prospective mother should have a well-balanced diet even before pregnancy; otherwise she will have to augment her nutrition and child development during pregnancy. Experiments have shown that optimum diets before and during pregnancy were associated with less toxemia, healthier babies, better teeth, and with fewer premature births, stillbirths, and congenital abnormalities (28, 1957).
One of the most exciting advances in nutrition and child development was the greater recognition of the relationship between good nutrition and child development and mental and physical development. It had been proven that nutrition and child developmental deficiency early in the life cycle, even before birth, could cause permanent retardation of mental development and learning behavior. Equally impressive was the finding that inadequate diets fed to pregnant animals adversely affect not only the rate of growth of the offspring but also their ultimate size, even when the offspring receive normal diets from the time of birth. These studies had far-reaching practical implications for human societies of the future.
The level of the child's neurological and physiological development determines the kinds of learning that can take place. Accordingly, the age at which a particular task should be taught to a child depends on the complexity of the skill, the degree of co-ordination and mental ability involved, and the rate of that particular child's development. A little practice at the appropriate stage of maturation is more effective than a lot when the child is too young. |
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