Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention

Early childhood development is becoming the focus of policy worldwide. However, the evidence on the effectiveness of scalable models is scant, particularly when it comes to infants in developing countries. In this paper, we describe and evaluate with a cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial an intervention designed to improve the quality of child stimulation within the context of an existing parenting program in Colombia, known as FAMI. The intervention improved children's development by 0.16 of a standard deviation (SD) and children's nutritional status, as reflected in a reduction of 5.8 percentage points of children whose height-for-age is below -1 SD.

Automated summary

Early childhood development is a global policy focus, but there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of scalable models for infants in developing countries. This paper evaluates an intervention aimed at improving child stimulation within the context of Colombia's existing parenting program FAMI, using a cluster-randomized controlled trial. The intervention improved children's development and nutritional status.