Developmental delay in early childhood is associated with visual-constructive skills at school age in a Brazilian cohort

Abstract We investigated differences in IQ and visual-constructive skills in school-age children evaluated as developmentally delayed or typically developed in early childhood. Sixty-four participants from a Brazilian cohort were evaluated in IQ (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence) and tasks of visual-spatial memory and visual-constructive skills through the Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT) at school age. Neuropsychomotor development at 4 years of age was measured by Denver II. Developmentally delayed children showed lower IQs, lower scores, and more errors in copy and memory BVRT tasks when compared to typically developed children. Delay in neuropsychomotor development in early childhood may affect the subsequent cognitive development of children

Perceptions of self, self-esteem, and the adolescent smoker

Adolescent tobacco use remains a key problem in health education and health promotion. The continuing growth of youthful smoking and other substance use is often explained by appeal to global psychological variables such as self- esteem, where the young smoker is assumed to smoke, drink, or take drugs to compensate for low levels of self-esteem. This paper sets out a brief critique of the deployment of 'self-esteem' as a global variable in understanding adolescent smoking, and argues for a more complex vision of self-identity as a means of connecting young people's ideas about themselves with their concrete health behaviours