Early Childhood Development in Thailand in 2021: Public Health Region 5

Abstract

This descriptive study was conducted to examine factors associated with child development. The stratified sampling technique was employed to randomly choose 390 children, aged 9 months to 6 years, and their families Data were gathered through interviews, mother-and-child health handbooks, and examinations utilizing the Denver Developmental Screening Test II (Denver II). The content validity was .77, while the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .89. Data were collected from April to May 2021 and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression. The results indicated that Thai childhood development in Public Health Region 5 had a rate of age-appropriate development of 73.10% and a rate of delayed development of 26.90%. The most delayed development was language, followed by social and self-help skills, as well as small and large muscle development. Maternal factors (educated and between 20 and 35 years old), environmental factors (breastfeeding and reading with children), and child factors (weight greater than 2,500 grams at birth, gender, iron supplementation, and no oral cavity issue) were found to significantly predict child development. It is suggested that the DSPM guides should be provided in a format that fits with societal change, such as YouTube, video, tiktok, etc., in order to evaluate and promote  child development at an age-appropriate rate and it should be monitored every three months.