Professor of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt.
Abstract
This review describes the pattern and scope of the preschool child development, how to assess a child's development, to find out the factors affecting child's development and to describe the situation of children's development in Egypt. Preschool child is defined in this review as the child aged from 0-< 6 years. In Egypt, they represent 14.1% of the whole population, according to the last census 2006. Malnutrition among preschool children is still prevalent (29% were stunted, 6% underweight; and 7% were wasted). Iron deficiency anemia is also prevalent among children and has implications on the normal development of the Egyptian preschoolers. Children in rural areas and Upper Egypt suffer more and need more attention. Rearing styles among the Egyptian families are those that not encouraging creative abilities and independence among the preschoolers. Poverty and illiteracy, especially among women will hinder the progress expected in the future with the advance knowledge and technology. These negative factors will be more prevalent in rural and upper Egypt. There is a need to conduct regular surveys on issues related to Egyptian preschool child development.
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