The Correlation Between Parental Stimulation and Motor Development in Stunted Toddlers

Stunted toddlers cannot explore their fine and gross motor skills because they tend to have shorter body and change in brain structure and function in brain development caused by the late maturity of cerebellum cells. Stimulation plays an essential role in improving child development, especially children’s motor development. This study aimed to analyze the role of parents’ stimulation in motor development in stunted toddlers. The study design used was a cross-sectional approach. The sample was 96 mothers, with their stunted toddlers using simple random sampling. Parental stimulations was the independent variable and motor development was the dependent variable. Data collection used the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the Spearman rank correlation test with a significance p<0.05. The results showed that parent’s stimulation has a significant relationship with the gross motor development of stunted toddlers (p=0.02, r=0.237), and parent’s stimulation has a significant relationship with the fine motor development of stunted toddlers (p=0.002, r= 0.314). If the parents provide a pleasant stimulation pattern, then the motor development of children will be proper. The role of a parent’s stimulation can be done by stimulating by habituation, stimulating by example, stimulating with exercise, and stimulating with competence. Habituation is mostly used by parents to encourage their children.