Care for Child Development Plus (C4CD) programme is found to have positive impacts on the overall development of children under three years of age. The play-based programme engages children and caregivers in activities such as playing, reading and telling stories to foster children’s physical and cognitive development.
The pilot programme was initiated by Save the Children Country Office and Health Ministry in Paro and Punakha. 420 caregivers and children below three years were part of the pilot programme, which began in September last year.
An impact assessment study found that the programme had a good effect on Children’s cognitive, language and social-emotional development and a considerate amount of effect on motor development.
The caregivers in the C4CD Plus group owns a storybook and tell stories to the children. Studies found that introducing children to books and reading at an early age can help children’s brain development. It was also found caregivers in the C4CD Plus group were not spanking their children.
“We know from previous research that negative discipline is associated with lower development in children. Through negative discipline when children get scared it actually inhibits their brain development,” Jonathan Seiden, the Learning Research Specialist with Save the Children USA, said.
“So we really want to encourage parents to teach different strategies to discipline their child and get them to correct their behaviour that doesn’t involve hitting or yelling or spanking, ”
Under the programme, children along with their caregivers attend a session where they are engaged in reading and playing with clothes. The programme consists of 12 sessions for caregivers and children.
Health assistants are also trained to interact with the caregivers and give them different strategies to play with their children.
“And the idea is that during these 12 sessions caregivers are learning different games and activities that they can do with their children to help stimulate their brain and give them more experience in talk and language skills,” Jonathan Seiden said.
“The brain development and the development of the body takes place within a period of time. If we do not give right information, right play then for a child born with a disability it will be too late to intervene later. But between zero to three we are covering crucial time and giving early intervention to correct the child, “Chakchu Tshering, the Deputy Chief Programme Officer of Department of Public Health, said.
The programme also focuses on safety and discipline, the well-being of children and health and nutrition aspects as well.
With the positive impact, the Health Ministry and Save the Children Bhutan are planning to roll out this programme to other parts of the country as well.
