Developmental Trajectories of Cognitive Intelligence in Iranian Preschoolers children

The present study has aimed to investigate the developmental trajectories of cognitive intelligence in Iranian preschoolers to provide earlier prevention or intervention. The study sample was 433 healthy Iranian children (girl=47.8%) from Tehran, Bandar Abbas, Mashhad, Zarand, and Tabriz, who ranged from 48 to 78 months. The third Persian version of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence was used to assess cognitive intelligence. A positive moderate (.3<r<.7) significant Pearson correlation was observed among 22 cases out of 42 correlations. It indicates a high internal correlation of cognitive components. The results of ANOVA showed no significant difference among Verbal Intelligence, Performance Intelligence, and overall Intelligence, in boys and girls. Results of the Kruskal-Wallis test showed there were significant differences among developmental trajectories of Verbal Intelligence, Performance Intelligence, and overall Intelligence among the six-month age groups, which were followed up by the Games-Howell post-hoc test. Significant increase (p<.01) in cognitive intelligence at 48 to 78 months of age indicates that this age is one of the critical periods associated with the development of cognitive ability. Founded developmental trajectories in present study, can help administrators and professionals to cause better planning for early childhood.