Piagetian and psychometric development of 12 month old disadvantaged infants in an enrichment program

Abstract

A Piagetian cognitive‐developmental curriculum was implemented with black infants from low‐education, low‐income families. The infants entered child care at six months. Their scores at 12 months on Piagetian Infancy Scales and on the Cattell Infant Intelligence Scale were compared with the scores of 12 month old infants carefully matched with intervention infants on variables of age, sex, ethnicity, maternal marital status and ordinality. No mother had completed a high school education at time of birth of the child. On the Object Permanence and Means‐End Scales the program infants showed superior performance in comparison with controls. They did not show differences on the other scales, nor were there differences between program and control infants on group IQ scores. Sex differences were found. Females scored higher than males regardless of group status. The special vulnerability of male infants to lack of maternal nurturance, responsivity, and intellectual stimulation is discussed. The feasibility of im...