Abstract：Objective To study the effect of early education on infants intellectual development in urban communities. Methods Seventy-nine normal infants born in Fang Zhuang Community from July 1997 to Jan. 1998 were set as the early education group. Eighty-six healthy infants with conventional care who were born in the same community from Jan. 1996 to May 1997 were set as the control group. Parents were taught to carry out the early educational program beginning from the newborn period, which included motor, cognitive, speech development and social behavior. At the age of one and a half, all infants in the two groups received infant development tests of Child Development Center of China (CDCC).Results There were no significant difference in physical development, and cultural and social factors between the two groups. Intelligence tests at the age of one and a half showed that the average mental development index (MDI) and psychomotor mental development index (PDI) in the early educational group were 19.6 and 10.1 higher than those in the control group respectively. There were 31 infants (39.2%) with MDI≥130 (superexcellent) in the early educational group while there were only 5 superexcellent infants (5.8%) in the control group.Conclusions Early education for newborn infants is effective and feasible in urban communities.
