Correlation between motor and language skills at extremely poor and reference children in Ethiopia

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: to get more insight into the correlation between the developmental performances of motor and language skills at extremely poor and reference children in Ethiopia.

PARTICIPANTS: 789 children under six years of age living in extreme poverty (471 non-malnourished and 318 stunted) were matched in age and gender with 789 reference children. All children lived in Jimma, Ethiopia.

MEASUREMENTS: performances on the developmental domains in gross motor, fine motor and language skills were cross-sectionally tested by the Denver II-Jimma. This is an adapted and standardized version of the Denver II test to the socio-cultural context of Ethiopian children, in Jimma.

RESULTS: developmental performances in gross/fine motor and language skills were positively and significantly correlated at both children in extreme poverty and reference children. The correlation between fine motor and language skills was significantly weaker in children in extreme poverty compared to reference children. This was not the case for the correlation between gross motor and language skills. The correlation between gross/fine motor and language skills did not differ between extreme poverty children without malnutrition and which were stunted. Neither did the correlation between gross/fine motor and language skills differ between boys and girls at children in extreme poverty and reference children.