The preschool years are a time of rapid expansion in children’s knowledge, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and memory skills, all of which are critical for success in school. Identifying salient correlates of cognition is a compelling aim of contemporary developmental science, the study of human ontogeny. In the current literature, multivariate models have been used to identify specific candidate correlates. The results form the basis for evidence-based intervention design aimed at improving child development outcomes. However, studies have been conducted almost exclusively in high-income country (HIC) populations, and complementary parallel studies in rural, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) using analogous multivariate analytic approaches have lagged behind.
This is despite the fact that the majority of the 250 million children under the age of five who are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential live in LMICs (McCoy et al., 2016), are exposed to poverty, poor health and nutrition, and lack cognitively stimulating environments.
The main aim of this study is to identify which variables—capturing children’s characteristics, their mothers, and home environments—correlate with the cognitive ability of young preschool-age children in rural Ghana, an understudied and high-risk context.