NEUROBEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN L IVING IN POVERTY ENVIRONMENTS

Forty two 4 years old children (20 boys and 22 girls) were studied. Tw enty two children belonged to low socioeconomic strata and were classi fied as high-risk children (HRC); the other 20 were classified as low- risk children (LRC). Electroencephalographic records and three psychol ogical tests: WPPSI, Developmental Programing for Infants & Young Chil dren and Portage Guide to Early Education were applied. Absolute power (AP) was computed for the total EEG energy (1.5-19 Hz) as well as eac h reference derivation in four frequency bands: delta (1.5-3.5 Hz), th eta (4-7.5 Hz), alpha (7.5-12.5 Hz) and beta (12.5-19 Hz). HRC showed significantly more delta, theta and total AP than LRC in anterior lead s. Alpha AP was higher in LRC in occipital areas and in F8 and T4. On the other hand, HRC showed lower values than LRC in cognition and lang uage items of developmental tests and in 7 items of WPPSI. Positive co rrelation was found between alpha AP and vocabulary, similarities and motor items values. IL is suggested that the lag of environmental stim ulation could produce, in turn, a lag of SNC development in children.