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Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background/aim: A stimulating home environment in early childhood plays a crucial role in fostering child development. This study aimed to evaluate the home environment of children who were referred due to developmental delays or concerns and had not received any intervention at the child or family level.Materials and methods: The study comprised of 50 atypically developing preschool children monitored at the Developmental Pediatrics Department of *** and 70 typically developing preschool children from the General Pediatrics Department at ***. Physicians and experienced child development professionals employed the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) to perform developmental assessments on each child. The characteristics of the home environment for all participants were evaluated using the Home Environment Questionnaire (HSQ), and their sociodemographic details were recorded.Results: The home stimulation scores for children with atypical development were significantly lower compared to those for their typically developing peers (p = 0.000). Physical violence against children was reported by 34% of parents of children with developmental delays (p = 0.000). The presence of developmental delay (p = 0.000, CI 12.629 - 7.927), the family socioeconomic status (p = 0.002, CI 3.813 - 1.486), and the number of family members (p = 0.001, Cl 2.595 - 0.708) were significantly associated with home stimulation scores.Conclusion: Initial assessment of children with developmental delay and concerns suggest that the stimuli in their home environment are of lower quality relative to those of typically developing peers, and these children are subjected to markedly higher levels of physical violence. These results underscore the need for early childhood caretakers, public health practitioners, and other professionals to design and implement targeted interventions, particularly prioritizing low-income families living in disadvantaged environments.

Author ORCID Identifier

EMEL ÖMERCİOĞLU: 0000-0001-9551-9996

EBRU CİHAN ÇAM: 0000-0003-4845-563X

ÖMER NAZIM GÜLÇEK: 0000-0003-4546-1946

ELİFELİF N ÖZMERT: 0000-0002-4911-9200

DOI

10.55730/1300-0144.5956

Keywords

children, Developmental delay, home environment

First Page

184

Last Page

192

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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