Abstract:
The present study was carried out to investigate the impact and usefulness of the Learning
Through Play (LTP) Calendar, a parent training program, in enhancing parental sense of child
caring and support in Bangladesh. There were two parts of the study. First, conveniently
recruited 90 children (Girls = 45) aged between 0 and 6 years were assessed using LTP Calendar
quadrants and oval formats (child development record forms) to identify the factors that
adversely affect childhood development. It was found that postnatal illnesses, psychiatric
conditions in family, and the quality of interactions between children and their caregivers were
significant for the development of the children. The second part of the study investigated
whether a parenting education program based on the LTP Calendar would enhance the positive
parenting of caregivers. For this, a LTP Calendar parenting workshop was developed where 30
parents of typically developed children and 30 parents of children with special needs
participated. A mixed quasi experimental design was used to carry out the study. It was found
that the workshop significantly increased parenting knowledge, improved attitude towards
parenting and parenting skills of all the participants. Results further indicated that the change in
parenting knowledge and attitude was significantly higher among the parents of children with
special needs than the parents of typically developed children. Altogether, the findings suggest
that LTP Calendar can be a potentially useful tool to improve parental sense of caring and
support and parenting skills of Bangladeshi parents.
