Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Child is a God’s gift for a family. Children are more vital, more gentle, more joyous, more trustful, more curious, more courageous and more innovative than adult. Children bring happiness and make a family as a whole. OBJECTIVES: To assess the knowledge of the mothers regarding the growth and development of the toddlers. To associate the level of knowledge with selected
socio-demographic variables. METHODOLOGY: The research design selected for this study is non-experimental descriptive design. The study is conducted in Venkatachalem, Nellore. The sample for the study is selected with non probability convenience sampling technique and includes 60 mothers of toddlers who fall under inclusion criteria. The study revealed that out of 60 mothers of toddlers, 50 %(30%) had adequate knowledge, 30% (18) had moderately adequate knowledge and only 20% (12) had inadequate knowledge and education, type of family and no.of children had significant association with level of knowledge of mothers of toddlers. CONCLUSION:Assessment of the knowledge of mothers regarding growth and developmental pattern of their toddlers will help us to instruct the mothers based on their learning needs which will guide them to identify the normal patterns of growth and development and deviations in normal growth and development of a child in its early stage.

Key words: knowledge, growth AND DEVELOPMENT, toddler, MOTHERS.