Impact of parent-based intervention program to support early development of children in Dhaka city

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.