Action Research Project for Home-based Delivery of Parent/Caregiver Education for Holistic Early child Care

Our action-research project in Mulshi Taluka of Pune district systematically developed a process by which the messages and strategies of parent/caregiver education could be effectively contextualised. A further objective was to understand the impact of a programme that not only delivers universal care messages, but influences positive change in care behaviours.

Implementing the Adapted Caregiver Education Programmes and Assessing Impact

Local women were identified as ‘communicators’ in the research villages. ICDS anganwadi workers from several neighbouring villages also served as communicators.

The CLR trained these women to deliver the adapted curriculum through monthly education sessions for caregivers in their own communities, followed by effective home visits. Baseline and Endline surveys were conducted. Activities for wider community outreach were also facilitated by CLR.

Rapid Appraisal and Baseline Survey

We began with a rapid appraisal of the relevant issues that had a bearing on the lives of caregivers and children. Through Focus Group Discussion and Social Mapping, we learned about the local knowledge, attitudes and practices of caregivers. The baseline survey covered all aspects of holistic child care.

A New Strategy

We trialed a strategy whereby caregivers who attended meetings could bring their children along and participate in a ‘play group’. Each play group was equipped with handmade and inexpensive play materials. This proved to be an enormous incentive for attendance, and also helped in the demonstration sessions on various activities and play materials for psychosocial stimulation of babies and toddlers.

Organising a ‘Child Care Day’ in each Village

Interactive poster exhibitions developed by CLR in Marathi were held as part of ‘Child Care Days’ in the villages where the research project was being implemented. All activities organized by us in collaboration with ICDS staff during these days were targeted specifically at male caregivers, and also served to heighten general community awareness about good child care practices. The exhibitions generated a lot of interest among the visitors.

Discussion sessions with male caregivers were also held, while the toy-making corner for parents, and water-play corner for toddlers, turned out to be major attractions during the event.

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Assessing the Impact of the Caregiver Education Programme

At the end of the programme in the research villages, the questionnaire related to knowledge of holistic child care was once again administered to the participating caregivers, in order to measure the impact of the intervention. Besides the analysis of this quantitative data, qualitative data was gathered through interviews and Focus Group Discussions.

Findings

The quantitative and qualitative data revealed that the CLR Caregiver Education Programme had a very positive and considerable impact:

Caregivers reported significant increase in their knowledge of ways to interact with young children in a stimulating manner. Although awareness of issues related to child health, nutrition, and pre-natal care increased among caregivers, the principal change was related to psychosocial care.
Caregivers reported changes in actual practices related to psychosocial stimulation of children, and the recognition of noticeable developmental changes following their efforts. Most importantly, they were able to distinguish between proactive and on-demand stimulation, and the benefits of the former.
While knowledge and practices of all aspects of holistic caregiving had increased, caregiving behaviours were sometimes constrained by social structures, culture, gender roles, incompatibility of opinions between different caregivers in the same family, availability of resources, and other factors.

EXAMPLES OF PROJECTS - Birth-3 Years

Action Research Project for Home-based Delivery of Parent/Caregiver Education for Holistic Early Child Care
Building Capacity within NGOs to Promote Early Childhood Care and Development: Project with P.R.I.D.E. in Raigad District, Maharashtra
Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), Tilonia, Rajasthan
Sajag - A Caregiver Education Project for Promoting Holistic Home-Based Child Care in Rajnandgaon Block, Chhattisgarh