Home Environment and Early Cognitive Development

Book excerpt: Home Environment and Early Cognitive Development: Longitudinal Research presents the results of longitudinal studies in Canada and the United States that looked into the relationship between home environment and early cognitive development. The aim of these investigations is to determine the specific or process home environmental variables that correlate with and possibly regulate cognitive development during infancy and the preschool years. Comprised of 10 chapters, this book begins with a brief introduction to the issues investigated. Each of the following seven chapters is devoted to a longitudinal investigation, with emphasis on data presentation, analysis, and interpretation. The influence of home environment on cognitive development in young children of middle-socioeconomic-status families as well as Mexican-American children is considered. Assessments of cognitive development are carried out using standard psychometric tests of intelligence; Piagetian-type measures of sensorimotor development; measures of language development; and measures of recognition memory for infants. The final chapter assesses the implications for intervention of the link between home environment and early cognitive development. This monograph will be of interest to psychologists and sociologists.