El Desarrollo Infantil en la Primera Infancia en Ecuador.

Abstract

Child development is a dynamic process in which the child acquires motor, cognitive, linguistic and psychosocial skills. This, appropriately focused during early childhood (0- 5 years), brings with it a better cognitive performance, a reduction in social disadvantages and an improvement in future socioeconomic and work conditions. In Ecuador, the Ministerio de Inclusión Económica y Social (MIES) is in charge of child development care in early childhood of those children whose families have a vulnerable socio-economic situation. Using the database of the five learning achievement assessments and Social Registry data provided by MIES; through the estimation of probit models, the factors that affect the cognitive development of early childhood in Ecuadorian children who belong to the Centro de Desarrollo Infantil (CDI) and the Creciendo con Nuestros Hijos (CNH) program were determined. The results suggest that factors specific to the individual such as age, ethnicity, gender, as well as factors inherent to the family environment such as the level of education of the parents and socioeconomic level, influence the probability that children dominate learning achievements; that is, they have adequate cognitive development.