PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND PRESCHOOLERS' COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLIC NURSERY SCHOOLS IN OGBA EGBEMA/NDONI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF RIVERS STATE

Abstract

Parental involvement cannot be handled with a wave of the hand when it comes to the preschoolers' cognitive development. The study investigated the relationship between parental involvement and preschoolers' cognitive development. The study adopted correlational design  and two research questions with  corresponding hypotheses, tested at.05. Parental Involvement and Preschoolers’ Cognitive Development Checklist (PIPCDC) was constructed by the researcher, validated with a reliability index of 0.58 and used for the study.There were 3,489 nursery 3 pupils and 350 were used as sample size from the population through simple random sampling technique. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to analyze the research questions and testing of the null hypotheses. The results indicated that  parent-child interaction and educational activities of the parents were significantly related to the preschoolers’ cognitive development. Some recommendations were made among which included that parents, caregivers, government and curriculum planners should ensure technology activities as specified in the study in addition to the cognitive development  elucidated in the National Policy on Education while teaching Nature Studies in Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE) centres. This will help the Preschoolers to use the already developed cognitive skills and the lessons will be based on their interests. Suggestions were made for further research.