Malnutrition in early childhood is linked to deficits in the cognitive development of children. Stunting in children delays school enrolment and is found to be associated with grade repetition and a higher dropout in primary school children. Children who suffered from early malnutrition were also found to have greater behavioural problems. Deficiency of micronutrients such as iron, iodine and zinc is associated with a lower attention span, poor memory, mental retardation and poor school achievement. Continuous low nutritional intake combined with poor access to healthcare is likely to impact on children’s psychological development in terms of attentiveness, emotional expression, motivation, learning ability and school performance. Nutrition is interconnected with the environment, psychological health, health and education. Considering these issues separately results in an incomplete understanding of poverty and a reduced ability to ameliorate problems. Malnutrition must be considered alongside other factors in childhood development. Psychosocial stimulation received by the children seems to make a significant contribution in alleviating the effects of malnutrition. Several studies show that nutritional supplementation when combined with stimulation has substantial benefits for cognitive development. Children who experience under nutrition are also likely to grow up in an under-stimulated social and psychological environment and it is the complex interaction between these factors that causes cognitive deficits. Since it is difficult to unravel the complexity of the mechanisms and sift out the effect of psycho-social stimulation, it is difficult to establish the existence of a causal relationship between under-nutrition alone and cognitive development of children. The present Article Reviews the role of Malnutrition among children in India & its impact on their cognitive development.
Keywords: Malnutrition, Childhood, Deficiency, Primary school children.
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