Early Chi ldhood Care and Development (ECCD) Various Modalities of Delivering Early Cognitive Stimulation Programs for 0-6 year olds Before young children can start to learn reading and math, they need to develop the physical, cognitive, language and social skills to use a pencil, follow a story and listen quietly to a teacher. That’s why Save the Children (SC) places such a high priority on giving children under age 5 a head start so they are ready to learn. SC has a range of early childhood development programs in 75 countries, including the United States. Through a wide range of approaches, we support families and children from expectant mothers and newborn babies to preschool aged children until they transition into primary school. SC promotes learning in the home and community as well; inviting parents and community members to join in activities that promote the development and learning of young children starting in infancy. Often, our early education programs draw on the community’s culture and traditions, presenting stories and songs in their local language, building on positive family practices. FIRST 1000 DAYS SC is steadily building the evidence base for our efforts to support the development and growth of children between 0-3 years. Since early childhood development is closely linked to the family and the quality of the support and interactions between the caregiver and child, many of the programs targeting this young age group strive to improve parenting practices and home environment.

In Bangladesh, a support program for parents with children from birth to 36 months old focuses on improving parent practices through integrated messages about early stimulation, nutrition and health. The program, scaled up through the national nutrition program funded by the World Bank, delivers six main messages to caregivers on positive parenting practices using two different strategies: 1) through community-based mother volunteers who run mother groups every two weeks in the community and 2) through building the messages into the workload of government family-

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From Evident to Scale Up: Demonstrated significant impact on child outcomes and moved from pilot to a scale up phase

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welfare assistants who conduct regular household visits to young mothers and children. The program’s focus has been on strengthening parent-child communication, play and interaction by reminding parents of simple things they can do with their infants and toddlers, such as “Get a conversation going by copying your infant’s sounds and gestures” or “When you are outside…etc.” In order to evaluate the intervention, the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (managed by the World Bank) has funded a randomized control trial. The results show significant gains in home environment and child development for the beneficiaries of programs integrating early education.

PARENTS AS FIRST TEACHERS Time and time again, SC programming points to the importance of parents in the circle of influence on children’s readiness for primary school. Parents of varying levels of reading and writing skills make a difference to preschool-aged children. Offering parenting classes with subjects ranging from healthy eating, to games that promote early literacy, to positive discipline messaging, show that for little investment, gains in children’s school

readiness scores improved. When planning for the support of early interventions, parenting classes alone, or wrapped around a health intervention or early education programming, prove to be a vital and easy-to-operate model. In Rwanda, SC offered a training for community-based ECCD teachers on Early Literacy and Math (ELM). This training includes activities that support early literacy and math growth in class, as well as parenting class modules that support this growth at home. During an impact study at the end of the program children attending ECCD programing with both the child activities to boost ELM and parents attending classes raised their cognitive skills 22%. Children who did not attend ECCD programming, but whose parents received training on caregiving practices, increased their scores by 21%, while children who attended a non-supported ECCD program made 12% gains. If running ECCD centers isn’t feasible, then offering parenting classes once or twice a month that specifically support early literacy and math, is a viable, cost-effective alternative for reaching those not accessing ECCD programs.

CENTER BASED ECCD ECCD centers, whether government supported or set up by SC and partners, is one approach to providing quality access to children and their families. ECCD centers are a delivery model well suited for urban programming and supporting national models that offer a centralized location for children, teachers and parents to gather for learning. SC supports AM/PM, full day, and rotating-shift programs within government established schools, in rooms attached to health centers and religious institutes. We offer trainings to teachers, parents, and community members, support quality reviews, supplemental supplies, and coordinate with health and community services for families.

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HOME-BASED ECCD ECCD centers offer some communities access to early stimulation experiences, but often communities aren’t set up for centers. Instead, SC partners with community members and governments to run ECCD programming within a home or community space. This model has been highly effective for communities and governments that are unable to serve due to insecurity or local conditions.

PRE-PRIMARY PREP CAMPS Throughout the world many ministries and SC programs work to support children in a one or two year pre-primary school. SC works to provide access to students that fall through the standard programing net and have found that when a full-year program isn’t feasible, an intensive eight or nine week Pre-primary Prep Camp has shown gains in children’s school readiness skills. An Early Literacy and Math (ELM) program in Bangladesh, condensed into a full-time program before primary school, found that children were making higher gains in literacy skills than children enrolled in a standard ECCD program spanning one year. Equivalent programs in the Philippines have shown similar results.

MOBILE LEARNING KITS FOR FAMILIES ON THE MOVE

In Mongolia, 30% of the children were unable to attend ECCD centers due to their semi-nomadic life and, as a result, were behind their peers in school readiness. In partnership with Japan Social Development Fund and the World Bank, SC developed a program for children and their families to access a series of 10 home learning kits with books and educational toys loaned to the families one-by-one to support home learning. In any one of 30 districts, after completing one kit, families returned them for another in the series and asked any questions to a government facilitator who supported the program. The parents are supported in the use of materials and their vital role as the first teacher for their children. While SC is still piloting the program, the government is looking to scale up the program for more children.

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FAMILY CIRCLES AND BOOK CLUBS In El Salvador, due to remoteness and security concerns, many families cannot access ECCD centers. In an integrated approach, SC worked with communities to set up weekly or bi-weekly Family Circles for parents and children ages 0-3 to offer lessons, lend materials and conduct activities to promote health, early literacy, and play to promote early education and reduce the stress caused by chronic violence. When children are old enough to walk to their neighbor’s house, they can access book clubs that promote early reading, along with good health and hygiene practices. Children take books home with them and read by themselves, with older siblings or family members.

FURTHER IDEAS WILLING TO PILOT There never seems to be a shortage of ways to bring programming and early literacy to children and families who aren’t accessing the standard ECCD centers run by governments and SC. We have seen varying models of successful programing and are eager to pilot and collect evidence of success with these or other models:

• Mobile ECCD centers – driving the class to the children via camels and donkeys that walk into communities with books and materials for lending and sharing.

• Radio programming for children and adults in emergency and low literacy communities.

• Parenting Co-op classes where adults rotate the duty of running an ECCD center for a day while other parents are out tending to livestock or fields.

• Weekly/biweekly book clubs or reading buddies coming to communities to discuss and enjoy books together.

• ECCD drop-in centers associated with health centers; children spending time with other parents and caregivers receive life-saving treatments.

ENGAGING WITH POPULATIONS OFTEN FORGOTTEN Save the Children partners with governments, partners and donors to reach out and find early programming for marginalized children and families, no matter if they are on the move, tucked away due to remoteness or security, hidden amongst highly populated but underserved urban areas, or in places that struggle with low resources. We are growing partnerships with Child Protection programs focused on Orphans and Vulnerable Children to innovate and test to see which programs are most effective to reach children affected by chronic or toxic stress. In our 2016-2018 strategy, we focus on the most deprived and strive to partner, pilot, collect evidence and scale up what works to leverage the equalizing power of early childhood development.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Sara Poehlman, Senior Director ECCD

spoehlman@savechildren.org

Marianne O’Grady, Sr. Specialist ECCD

mogrady@savechildren.org