Effect of psychosocial stimulation on mental development of severely malnourished children: an interim report.

The effect of adding psychosocial stimulation to the treatment of severely malnourished children was studied. The study period covered children from the time they left the hospital to 24 months later. The children's developmental levels (DQs) were compared with those of two other groups who were in the hospital--an adequately nourished group with diseases other than malnutrition, and a severely malnourished group who received standard hospital care only. The children receiving intervention had structured play sessions in the hospital and were visited weekly for 2 years after returning home. During the visits paraprofessionals showed mothers how to continue structured play with their children. The malnourished children who did not receive intervention showed a marked deficit in developmental level compared with that of control children throughout the study. The control children showed a decline in developmental level with age, which is characteristic of disadvantaged children. The children receiving intervention showed marked improvements and by 24 months were ahead of the children who did not receive intervention in every subscale and were head of the adequately nourished children in two subscales. Both groups of malnourished children remained behind the control children in nutritional status and locomotor development.