Come Play with Me: a playful parenting project´s evolution from traditional means to digital resources.

• In Event: Parental engagment in ECD

Proposal

The profound impact of early childhood experiences on children's development is universally acknowledged. Parents and primary caregivers play a pivotal role as the child's first educators. The early interactions between the caregiver and the child, particularly those characterized by playfulness, are instrumental in forming a strong and enduring bond between the caregiver and the child. Such bonds are the bedrock of a nurturing relationship that not only supports the child's immediate well-being but also sets the stage for their future growth and learning.

The program team’s Playful Parenting approach recognizes the immense value of engaging caregivers in playful interactions with their children in their lives. When it first launched, this approach mainly engaged caregivers through group sessions and home visits. During and after COVID-19, however, the unforeseen challenges posed by the pandemic necessitated a swift and innovative response to ensure the continuity of this vital parenting support. Due to the constraints of lockdowns and the pressing need to maintain social distancing, the program team leveraged digital technology to sustain its reach and impact by remotely delivering new and ongoing programs, further expand its reach to traditionally hard-to-reach populations, and continue the momentum of its digital strategy.
The program team implemented the Come Play with Me Project across multiple countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Uganda. The Come Play with Me Project used a powerful storytelling approach to deliver key educational content in the form of radio theater, WhatsApp messages, web cards, GIFs, videos, and social media posts. In some contexts, group sessions, home visits, and community fairs continued. The wealth and diversity of accessible resources and modalities for participation allowed the project to reach an impressive number of families.

Preliminary findings from quasi-experimental analyses suggest that participants of the Come Play with Me Project had greater knowledge of responsive caregiving and practiced more early stimulation with their children. Even though the magnitude and the significance of the effects varied based on the context. In Guatemala, participants’ children also had greater development outcomes compared to their counterparts at endline. Efforts to more rigorously assess the impact of the Come Play with Me Project are underway.

This presentation aims to shed light on the multifaceted aspects of the program, expounding on the process of adaptation and contextualization to ensure relevance and resonance across different cultural landscapes. Moreover, it will provide an overview of the insights gleaned from the mixed-method evaluations, which integrate both quantitative and qualitative data from the baseline and endline assessments. We expect our lessons learned and evaluation findings to inform future endeavors in playful parenting and early childhood development programs.

Author

• Sandra M Sandoval, ChildFund International, USA