Comparative study of intelligence of children with normal weight and overweight

Abstract

This article discusses the results of theoretical and empirical studies of intelligence of children with normal weight and overweight. The article reveals an actual topic of mental health for the modern Kazakhstan society. Methods of study: Quantitative indicators of cognitive functions of children surveyed were determined using a valid standardized procedures – the Wechsler test and complex computer diagnostics instruments of “Effekton”. Obesity is rapidly “is getting younger”. In recent years, you will notice a significant increase in the number of well-fed children. If obesity is detrimental, even for an adult, it’s frightening to think what will happen to the body of the child in the future, if you do not take action, because after all obesity progresses. One of the most serious problems facing public health in the 21st century is obesity among children. Such children are prone to obesity in adulthood, and they are more likely in younger age appearance of such non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.Overweight and obesity, as well as related diseases, are largely preventable. Therefore, prevention of obesity of children must be given priority.Obesity at an early age and concomitant biochemical disturbances negatively affect the child’s brain. On the general level of intellectual development of children affects the socio-cultural environment, pre-school and school education, the efforts of parents and children themselves for the development of various fields of intelligence, as well as the physical health of children, which inevitably affects the brain functions. Immature central nervous system is more susceptible to the influence of harmful effects, which adversely affects the cognitive processes among children. Children with weak health differ reduced working capacity, fatigue, exhaustion of resources, which could be one of the explanations for the lag in mental development of children with obesity from healthy children of the same age. This study makes it possible to assert that overweight ambiguous effect on the intellectual functions of the child. It reduces non-verbal intelligence, but verbal intelligence caused the formation of a child is preserved and even compensates for the lack of non-verbal intelligence.

Key words: overweight, obesity, intelligence, verbal intelligence, nonverbal intelligence.