This dissertation aimed to investigate the association between the quality of municipal public
nurseries and biopsychosocial and family aspects on children's neuropsychomotor development in
Belém. There were carried out three cross-sectional and descriptive studies. The first study
investigated the twelve municipal public nurseries quality in Belém through the Infant/Toddler
Environment Rating Scale, Revised Edition (ITERS-R), identifying nurseries with higher and
lower quality averages and the main differences between them. The second study set the
neuropsychomotor development profile of 54 children that belonged to the four nursery classes
with higher and lower quality averages, through the Denver II Development Screening Test
(DDST II), where it was analyzed the biopsychosocial and familial associated aspects. Finally,
the third study tried to relate quality aspects of the ecological environment the Child Education
Units to the children's development. The first study results indicated quality averages by scale
ITERS-R between nursery classes ranging from 2.62 (inadequated) to 4.42 (minimally adequated)
and with quality average per class group of 3.68. The subscales with lower quality averages
between the classes were Personal Care Routines and Space and Furniture and Activities,
considered as inadequated and minimally adequated, respectively. The subscale with the higher
means was Structure of the program, evaluated as good quality. Items that obtained the lowest
quality scores among the classes were Provisions for personal needs of the team with an mean of
1, in addition to Furniture for routines care and plays and Health practices, both with means of
1.25 each. Items that obtained the highest quality scores among the groups were Interaction and
cooperation between the team with mean of 5.83 and Team stability with mean of 6. The second
study results indicated that 62.96% of the children were classified by DDST II with suspicion of
developmental delay, especially in the Language domain. Birth weight, prenatal accomplishment,
childbirth complications, child primary caregiver, place of the child's home and also Child
Education Unit locations were variables presented a statistically significant relation to DDST II
outcomes. The third study results showed that the mean of indicators of nursery quality by the
ITERS-R scale, as well as several items from six of the seven subscales contained therein, there
were significantly associated with DDST II scores, especially in fine motor area. The three studies
results reinforced the influence of both biopsychosocial and family characteristics, as well as the
ecological factors that characterize the quality of Nursery schools, in the child developmentprocess. For this reason, it is necessary to encourage the complementarity of the care and education
offered by the family and the public nurseries in order to obtain more adequate neuropsychomotor
development scores in the early childhood years and in the following years.
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