Introduction: The objective of this study was to evaluate published articles regarding the development of indigenous children aged 0 to four years.
Subjects and method: Systematic literature search. Parti cipants: Primary studies with populations of indigenous children aged 0 to four years. Type of studies: Primary studies with qualitative or quantitative methodologies published in the last ten years until November 2015. Databases: MEDLINE, Digital Library of the University of Girona: CERCADOR, EMBASE, Scielo.
Search strategy: sensitive and specific. Free terms, MeSH, and Boolean.
Results: Nine articles remain for analysis. There are six central subjects related to intracultural patterns of expected development in indigenous childhood: 1) physical, 2) language, 3) socio-cognitive, 4) emo tional, 5) teaching-learning, 6) psychosocial, which reveal the existence of categories of sociocultural and spiritual contents. There is no defined period of time associated with the education. Learning is through observation and participation. Development is understood as a whole, intertwining the social, cultural, natural and spiritual.
Conclusion: Spirituality and nature are at the center. Time as a goal to gain skills does not have a cultural function to demonstrate the acquisition of the inherent va lues to the culture. To base the assessment of development exclusively on psychomotor development as monitoring guide is insufficient to assess the integrality and complexity of the advances, abilities, and skills of indigenous children.