Caring for the Caregiver – Implementer’s Guide

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Caring for the Caregiver – Implementer’s Guide

In accordance with evidence from the Lancet and UNICEF recommendations on Early Childhood Development and Nurturing Care, preventive support for caregiver health and emotional well-being is key to optimal child development. There is recognition that frontline workers, who are often community volunteers and caregivers themselves, are not equipped with adequate skills to enable them to support caregiver needs.

Caring for the Caregiver (CFC) provides curriculum for training frontline workers to address barriers to responsive caregiving and it provides supporting implementation materials for counselling caregivers. CFC training translates well-established evidence on how to support emotional well-being and mental health, presenting these in practical activities which encourage self-care, family. engagement and social support.

CFC was developed for the UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO) with the support of LEGO Foundation.

UNICEF’s Vision for Elevating Parenting

UNICEF’s vision for integrated, multilevel programming moves beyond approaching parents as recipients of information or education, to a more collaborative partnership where there is a co-construction of support for the child as well as for/with the parents themselves.

Key features include:

1) moving towards strengths-based rather than “deficit-focused” approaches;

2) employing a life course lens;

3) meeting systems where they are and elevating parenting support in existing platforms;

4) explicit articulation of gender-responsive and disability-inclusive approaches;

5) focus on culturally responsive community engagement and empowerment, and promoting enabling environments to support parents and caregivers.

What we mean by: Playful Parenting in the early years

The LEGO Foundation aims to build a future in which learning through play empowers all children to become creative, engaged, life-long learners. Parents are fundamental to that aim, as they are heavily invested in their children’s development and learning. While this is true across all ages of children, this leaflet has a critical focus on children from birth to three years old. The importance of parenting for infants and young children in this age group cannot be overstated.

This leaflet brings together our understanding of playful experiences that lead to deeper learning, with the international conversation around high quality parenting.

Learning Through Play

The brief describes the nature of pre-primary services within the broader concept of early learning. We then share definitions of what is meant by play in early childhood, followed by key points of why learning through play builds lifelong learners and supports children’s overall development. We then note
the obstacles that pre-primary advocates may face when making a case for play-based methods, and we propose a systems perspective in advocating for child-centred pedagogy and playful programmes. Noting the unique context of every country, the suggested strategies in this brief provide initial ideas that could be adapted to local contexts.

Evidence Brief – Parents, Play and Emotional Wellbeing

The UK Government has recognised the impact that parents playing, talking to and reading to their children has on early language development. This is fantastic. But the benefits of play are much wider: it contributes to cognitive, motor, emotional and social development. Play should be thought of as a vehicle to improve a wide range of outcomes for children, as well as an important part of a happy childhood.

This evidence brief describes what we know about how early play between children and their parents contributes to emotional development and mental health. It also explains why and how policy makers might use this information in their work.

Playful Parenting Activity Booklet

This booklet contains ideas for parents and caregivers to help support their young child’s physical, cognitive and social-emotional development. The booklet includes specific ideas for children from 0-9 and is broken into helpful sections based on a young child’s developmental milestones.

Responsive caregiving, early learning and play, and children’s safety and security during COVID-19

This rapid review takes stock of emerging research on nurturing care for young children during the COVID-19 crisis. This review synthesizes 112 scholarly and scientific studies that have examined three pillars of nurturing care during the pandemic: responsive caregiving, early learning and play, and children’s safety and security.