19022 Sedt.1998 Public Disclosure Authorized

19022 SeDt.1998 Public Disclosure Authorized Early PARENTING IN THE EARLY YEARS: A REVIEW OF PROGRAMS FOR PARENTS OF Public Disclosure Authorized CHILDREN FROM BIRTH OF THREE YEARS OF AGE Judith L. Evans and Public Disclosure Authorized P. A. Stansbery September 1998 Public Disclosure Authorized EDUCATNkON T H E W 0 R L D B A N K THE CONSULTATIVEGROUP ON EARLY CHILDHOODI CARE AND DEVELOPMENT Parenting in the Early Years: A Review of Programs for Parents of Children from Birth to Three Years of Age by Judith L. Evans' P. A. Stansbery2 September 1998 1 Director,Consultative Group on Early childhoodCare and Development 2 HarvardGraduate School of Educationand Child DevelopmentUnit (Boston Children's Hospital) TABLE OF CONTENTS Background ................................................................. 2 What Young Children Need ................................................................. 3 Strengthening Care for Children through Parenting Support and Education ...................... 11 Principles in Creating Parenting Programs ................................................................ 13 Strategies of Programming for Children Under Three ............................................................ 20 Models of parent support and parent education ................................................................ 23 One-on-One Parent Support at a Point of Service Delivery .................................................... 27 One-on One Parent Support in the Home: Home Visiting ...................................................... 28 Parent Groups ................................................................ 36 Media/ Distance Education ................................................................ 49 Parent Support and Development ................................................................ 54 Legislation and Regulations ................................................................ 58 Training ................................................................ 58 Research... ,60 Conclusion... 60 What Do We Need to Learn from Our Experiences and Research on Children 0 - 3? ......... 61 IELATED RESOURCES ............................................................... 63 PARENTING CURRICULUM ................................................................ 63 GENERAL PROGRAMS ............................................................... 71 REFERENCES ............................................................... 74 iii , p,',a,.--.',r.eW8S .. ~~~.....V.-I...... de: 'z ' '' The ..pl4-eth. .....r...... .... ofa4eua4ufhrm .... ............... ..... .. deeopdarud'te oldhvetndd t e ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...... ..... ... 9 disr-egardparentst and tnowedgana.e..... mt a .d.......... .. Parents are the child's first and most consistentsupport and teachers. How well parerent able to fulfill that role will affect not only their own individualchild, but the communityas a whole. Because parents are the first line of support for the child, there are times when parents themselvesneed support. Around the world, in both Majority World countries and industrialized nations, conditions,demands and expectationsof parents have shifted tremendouslyover the last twventyyears. The on-the-job training many parents used to receive from extended family membersor from religiousand cultural traditionsis largely unavailableto contemporaryparents. Nhereasin the past, most societies could claim a nodeal parentingpattemn-either an extended family model, a community/tribalmodel, a nuclear family or some other usual pattemn- now most societies are reporting that their family norms are disrupted, and the effects on children and parents alike are devastating. Powever, biological parents are not the only ones who need support. For an ever-increasing tumber of the world's children,biological parents are not availableto them most of the time, if at all. Parents are leaving children behind to go in search of work, they are losing children in the ncontextof diasporasand arned conflicts;they are leaving children in the caremouother children while trying to an- a living; tiey are dying of AIDS; they are being ravaged by drugs and povertysthey are trying to carry on while juggling inhuman demandscaused by long work days andhereasi the past, t mustcy provide within single-parenthouseholds. Children all over the world are not getting the parentingthey must have in order to be healthy and productivehuman beings. In most contemporarysettings when a child is at risk it is not merely due to parental ignoranceof child development,it is due to a whole complex of factors, includingthe fact fatthe individuals and cotnecunitieswho are in a position to care for that child do not see their role as including I parenting. But good parentingis precisely what childrenat-risk need. Thusparenting education, if it is to be effectiveas a strategy for supportingchildren at-risk, needs to be available not only to the child's parents, if they are present, but also to anyone in the communitywho can or does have an impacton the child's life: child minders,family members, care providers,educators, and communityresource people. The concept of supporting parents has existed for decades but the definition and manner of implementingparent support programnshave changedover time. Parenting support has evolved to reflect our new knowledge of early child development(birth to 6 years of age), a broader interpretation of who should and does provide care for children, and innovative, efficient strategiesto provide children with social services. In this paper we focus on programmingfor parents that is designedto ultimately support young children's development(birth to three), and the questionsand issues that need to be consideredas new programnsare designed. The paper begins with a brief overview of young children's developmentand the role parents play in supportingthat development;it presents a picture of parenting today; suggests some principles for the developmentof programsfor young children and their families; identifiesthe issues that need to be addressed and the questions that need to be answered, and provides examples of parentingsupport programs. Background The researchon brain developmentthat was highlightedduring 1997emphasizes the importance of the first three years of life in establishing the base upon which all later experience is developed. The now-acknowledgedimportance of the first years of life has caused the internationalcommunity to take a closer look at the ways in which the needs of the youngest children are being met. In many ways programsfor this age group are much less well developed than programs for those who are considered to be of pre-school age (children from age 3 to school entry). The programsthat do exist for the youngest children are offered primarilyby the health sector, and tend to focus on children's survival, with only minimal regard for child stimulationand the importantcomponent of child care. Recentlythat has begun to change. During 1997 two importantinitiatives were developedby the health communityin an attemptto provide a more holistic perspectiveon programmingfor the youngest child. These include the Care Initiative developedby the Nutrition Section within UNICEF (Engle, et al., 1997), and the WHO Division of Child Health and Developmentinitiative to Promote Healthy Growth and Development. This latter initiativeis being designedto bring together informationon basic child developmentand nutrition interventionsand to developa model that will be promoted by WHO and its partners. To continue this discussion,in April of 1998 a Working Group meeting was held on Integrating Child Development into Nutrition Programs, organized by UNICEF, Wye College, and the University of London. This was followed in April 1998 with the annual meeting of the ConsultativeGroup on Early ChildhoodCare and Development,where the major topic of discussionwas programming for children 0-3 years of age, with a major emphasis on work with parents. Thus recently,there has been considerableinterest in developing the most appropriateprograms for the youngest childrenand their families. 2 We begin with a brief review of what children from birth to age three require. What YoungChildren Need :"'x,s~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..'..>.... .. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...-=...C I bsup: ....s X* Whantheqeto''A"darHalthy is C bu ht tonhild?raet ayscetin Y:. :, dingto sougt childrenn deas dfneedthealhy" behildrieny of hapswey, breninghtand activ as weingaskee from disweaste;qetinTheye doe nthosearty ehoaluatemoprovd dvelopment,ieresognitie; dhevelopmenotherah psmosc olepnd duchmoenaipl,sartifro thealthe. Similarlyedpaets mehalty.Intbwrfalo the ft iffertcendotxwe wiprvide whnhlhy abriefaulrneady hiDurengthe f*s 2 nghreyetarchldrnlar atr1hnthywl ee eanaan).te*lvs Wheng wonohatthe.2them-Collettayol. quesingdpneton g isriedaotwhatsneed. .... youn chldentalhichildren need,threca beaovaiety mofdsers,el idependingoeng whoisbigavked quto anbtoswerbuwatheyqetin Thered arethshow could provideosa supporttheir growth and~~....develpmen. In a revie ofTable i 1is posibl: tose ht hlde vhreryidtaiedrespounsetheredren oteswowudrspn-uhmr3ipl,saigta h childineedstionbe heaelthy.enthe coferntextohsarticle twebwillotrepcrmi onyabreyutieoprovided gerowdthanlddevelopmenthr durin otherearlyoyarsuchanespndrmatcall foromsmonth stton mothath Durin the firstaethree, yhears cide ladsripin ofasethanthe whillrenever learing tagaitine thei lies. Theypor fhirom beng

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