DEVELOPMENT OF CLOTHES WITH GROWTH FEATURES FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN BENUE STATE

The major purpose of the study was to develop clothes with growth features for preschool children in Benue State, Nigeria. Ten specific purposes, seven research questions and five null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study at 0.05 level of significance. The design of the study was Research and Development (R and D) with six phases namely: Phase 1: Determining the Body Dimensions and growth features preferred, Phase 2: Designing Garments and Growth Features Preferred, Phase 3: Developing Patterns with Growth Features Preferred, Phase 4: Constructing the Prototype Garments, Phase 5: Developing Assessment Criteria Chart and Phase 6: Evaluating Prototype Garments. Population for the study was 40, 470 comprising of 40,004 preschool children, 200 mothers/caregivers, 16 lecturers and 250 tailors/seamstresses. The sample for the study was 600 respondents comprising of 380 preschool children randomly sampled, 200 mothers/ caregivers, sampled accidentally. 10 lecturers, 10 tailors/seamstresses and 10 mothers/caregivers were conveniently sampled.