Experts in a study strongly recommended integrating early childhood development models for the benefit of the future generation. The recommendation has been made in a major study titled, ‘randomised controlled trial on generating evidence of a scalable early childhood development (ECD) model to integrate into existing health services in Bangladesh.’
The study, released on Tuesday, was carried out by Bangladesh leading health research institute, icddr,b. The Child Development Unit of icddr,b conducted the study, said a press release on Tuesday. The study said that ECD is fundamental for the health, well-being and life-opportunities for every child, everywhere. However, poor ECD in low- and middle-income countries is a major concern.
In these countries including Bangladesh, around 250 million children under 5 years of age are failing to reach their maximum developmental potential, the study revealed. Multiple risk factors are at play - poverty, malnutrition and lack of a stimulating environment. There are calls to universalise access to ECD interventions through integrating them into existing government healthcare services but little evidence on the medium- or long-term effects of such scalable models are available, the report pointed out.
Addressing ECD during critical development periods is essential to meet many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the scientists who performed the study also points out. The icddr,b’s Child Development Unit has worked for the last two decades on ECD and has already developed a ‘Comprehensive Early Stimulation Package’ to benefit development of underprivileged children, such as children with malnutrition, anaemia, and/or poverty.
Dr Jena Derakhshani Hamadani, Emeritus Scientist, Maternal and Child Health Division, Dr Fahmida Tofail, Scientist, Nutrition and Clinical Services Division and Mr Bidhan Krishna Sarker, Assistant Scientist, Maternal and Child Health Division presented the study findings. The study involved capacity building of 19 Health and Family Planning Inspectors in two Upazilas of Mymensingh (Trishal and Bhaluka), who have subsequently trained 58 frontline health workers including Community Health Care Providers, Health Assistants and Family Welfare Assistants to provide ECD services to 576 children through responsive parenting training.
In a preliminary assessment, the study found that families showed significant improvement in the quality of home stimulation that is considered a proxy for child development and the effect size was 0.3 SD (standard deviation).
