Brown Bags

Presentations and other materials from the Friends of ECD Brown Bags Learning Series:

May 21, 2008

Measuring Child Development and School Readiness in Grade 1: International Experience using the Early Development Instrument (EDI), Magdalena Janus, Associate Professor, Offord Center for Child Studies at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario   [Powerpoint 194KB]

The EDI is a measure of school readiness, which responds to the call by national governments and international agencies for delivery of basic education to all children. The EDI is a psychometrically-sound, population-based measure of early childhood development (ECD) and school readiness. Since its development, the EDI has been successfully used, or adapted for use in over ten countries. International collaborations include regions in the United States, Australia, Chile, Egypt, Holland, New Zealand, and implementation in Indonesia, China, Jamaica, Kosovo, Moldova, Mozambique, Mexico and Australia. Each time the EDI is used in a new context, a community benefits from the extensive data set that it provides, and there is an opportunity for further cross-cultural validation. The EDI is based on five developmental domains recognized internationally, as common domains of early child development that influence school readiness. These developmental processes are viewed holistically and recognized by developmental experts as universal, rather than context, or culture specific processes; that is all children, regardless of cultural difference, should have the basic capacity to display these developmental behaviors.

May 08, 2008

The Effects of Environment on Brain Development and Implications for Intervention, Courtney Stevens, Brain Development Laboratory, University of Oregon [PDF 3.192KB]

Dr. Courtney Stevens at the Brain Development Laboratory, University of Oregon will present her research using neuro-imaging techniques to measure the effects of parenting training programs for children living in poverty. She will describe the latest neuron-imaging techniques used to measure the effects on brain development. In this talk, she will describe her research examining aspects of brain development that are vulnerable in children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and discuss the possible environmental pathways that mediate these differences in brain development.

  April 15, 2008

Early Child Development Program of Rio de Janeiro -- Impact Evaluation Design and Challenges, Ricardo Paes de Barros, IPEA, Rio de Janeiro Brazil and Pedro Olinto, DECVP [Powerpoint 194KB]

The Government of the city of Rio de Janeiro has requested Bank support in conducting a rigorous impact evaluation of its new Early Child Development program. Ricardo Paes de Barros (IPEA) and Pedro Olinto (DECVP)will describe the program's objectives and design and share their experience in working with the Government on a high quality impact evaluation. Although the study has been launched only recently, the presenters will be able to tell an interesting story about the the process of getting government buy-in for a lottery system to ration excess demand for the new ECD places.

The Rio de Janeiro program is an integrated, publicly-delivered Early Childhood Development program for children ages 0-4. It consists of 244 day-care centers targeted to low income neighborhoods of Rio. The Centers provide full time daycare, health services, feeding, and provide instructional toys and other material for children. The program also includes outreach to parents aimed at improving parenting practices. It is expected that access to these well equipped day-care centers, by providing a nurturing and stimulating environment for disadvantaged children, will: (i) boost human capital accumulation by the poor, and (ii) encourage mothers to seek employment and increase their earnings, thereby improving their own well-being and the well-being of their households.

The study will evaluate the impact of program participation on: (i) early childhood development outcomes, (ii) women's labor force participation and empowerment, and (iii) overall well-being of households in poor neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. Robust estimation of these impacts will be possible because the government of Rio decided to randomize access to the program via a lottery. Of the approximately 25,000 families that applied to the program in November of 2007, 10,000 children were randomly selected to receive services. A sample of 4,000 families (2,000 treatment+2,000 control) has been selected, and a baseline survey of child development outcomes and other HH variables will be fielded in May.

 January 31, 2008

Early Childhood Professional Development -- Continuing Lessons from Indonesia. Marilou Hyson, Senior Consultant for National Association for the Education of Young Children and Affiliated Faculty, Applied Developmental Psychology Department, George Mason University - [Powerpoint 2.047KB]

Marilou Hyson will share her experience with the design of the Indonesia Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) project component on Professional Development. A key to successful implementation of the ECED services is professional development for those who are planning and delivering those services. What evidence exists about the impact of early childhood professional development and about the ingredients of quality training for various early childhood roles? How can professional development be responsive to community characteristics and needs, and what is needed for a sustainable system? Using recent experiences with Indonesia’s ECED project as examples, Marilou will discuss opportunities, challenges, and lessons to be learned.

As NAEYC’s Associate Executive Director for Professional Development, Marilou worked on national standards and position statements on key early childhood issues. A former editor of Early Childhood Research Quarterly, her own research has addressed teachers’ beliefs, higher education quality improvement efforts, and children’s emotional development. She has consulted on NAEYC’s applied research initiatives and is working with the Families and Work Institute’s "Mind in the Making" professional development series on early development and learning. Marilou’s new book on how to support young children’s positive approaches to learning will to be published in spring 2008. She has also engaged in consultation with higher education institutions and state agencies on professional development issues and serves on numerous national advisory boards and technical work groups.

November 8, 2007

From Field Work to Policy -- How NGO efforts can help expand ECD services. Derya Akalin, General Director of the Mother and Child Foundation (ACEV) - [Powerpoint 5.292KB] + [Video 13.141KB]

In this presentation, the director of ACEV spoke about the developments in ECD services in Turkey and the efforts of ACEV in implementing alternative models in reaching the most disadvantaged families in this country. ACEV programs use multiple channels such as direct parent training programs, curriculum development for center-based training and public education via TV programs and the web. Ms. Akalin will also speak in this presentation about how this NGO, founded in 1993, has in the past few years moved into research and advocacy in order to expand the reach of public ECD services in the country.

 June 28, 2007

From ECD to Formal Education -- Issues and Challenges during the Transition. Experiences from the Philippines and El Salvador.  Melinda A. Bonga, Save the Children, Philippines [Powerpoint  5.798KB]; / Cathy Coddington, Save the Children, Central America [Powerpoint 6.585KB].

Melinda A. Bonga from the Save the Children Philippines Country Office will present some of the issues and challenges young Filipino children and their families face when children begin formal education. The presentation will also provide some highlights of the Philippines' school readiness study which shows some significant determinants of school readiness of children. Moreover, it will focus on existing programs to ease the transition of children to formal school like PhCO's ECD to Primary Transition Initiatives, particularly the implementation of Summer Learning Program which targets prospective Grade One entrants. Melinda A. Bonga is the National Program Coordinator for Early Childhood Development of the Save the Children Philippines Country Office. She provides technical inputs for programming and decision-making related to early childhood development. She is involved in developing and refining strategies for the following ECD programs: Parent Education Sessions, Support to Community-Based Day Care Centers, Supervised Neighborhood Service and Transition Initiatives (ECD-Primary) and ECD in Emergency Situations. She also conducts capability building workshops for daycare workers and community facilitators.

Cathy Coddington, Save the Children, Central America will explore the challenges that children, their families and their schools face as young children enter into first grade in El Salvador. From systemic issues such as traditional teaching methodologies that are not developmentally appropriate for first graders to family level issues, this brown bag will look at the causes of the high repetition and drop out rates in first grade. The discussion will also focus on different programmatic solutions that are currently being implemented to facilitate children's transitions to first grade, their associated costs and the sustainability of these programs. Cathy Coddington is Save the Children's ECD Advisor in Central America where she has been living and working for the last four years on a variety of ECD and transitions education projects. Prior to working with Save the Children she was working in Northern California as a coach to preschool providers from different program models. She earned her master's in international education policy at Harvard University in 2002.

June 20, 2007

New Advances in the Science of Child Development - Potential Opportunities to Promote the Well-being of Children, their Families and Commuties.  Avi Sagi-Schwartz, University of Haifa, Israel [Powerpoint 23,096KB]

The field of developmental science has been growing rapidly over the past three decades producing large amounts of data concerning healthy and adaptive development as well as unfavorable and undesired development in various domains (e.g., physical, emotional, social, cognitive). In recent years we have been witnessing how such advancements in basic developmental science are translated into policy and service-based implications in the "real world", with focus on the well being of young children and their parents in various parts of the world. This presentation will explore opportunities that may grow out of the science-community interface to the extent that transformation of human development knowledge can be exercised in geographical areas experiencing extremely high risk, toxic ecologies and hazards in order to ameliorate unhealthy development, coping difficulties, maladjustment, and violence. Such an interface may contribute to the enhancement of the well being of children and their families in countries-in-need, with a focus on prevention and intervention in order to promote family functioning as well as social and community network and support. Abraham (Avi) Sagi-Schwartz is professor of psychology and social work and director of the Center for the Study of Child Development at the University of Haifa in Israel, where he has also served as the dean of the graduate school. Dr. Sagi-Schwartz is the recipient of the 2007 Society for Research in Child Development Award for Distinguished International Contributions to Child Development. Dr. Sagi-Schwartz main research interests are in the area of attachment and socioemotional development across the life span and across cultures. In recent years, he has studied socioemotional development and adaptation under extreme life circumstances and experiences, especially the effects of the Holocaust as well as violent political conflicts. Sagi-Schwartz has special interest in transforming basic knowledge generated by child development research to various policies and interventions that may advance the well being of children across the world.

February 6, 2007

The Science of Early Child Development - Narrowing the Gap Between Research and Practice. Janet Jamieson, Director of the Science of Early Child Development Project, Red River College.

Prof. Janet Jamieson gave a short presentation on a new on-line multimedia curriculum resource, The Science of ECD, developed in Canada at Red River College in partnership with the Atkinson Centre for Society and Child Development, University of Toronto and Founders’ Network. The Science of ECD is highly interactive, designed to be informative, thought-provoking, engaging and fun and make current and important research come ‘alive’ – like a multimedia textbook. Renowned researchers such as Charles Nelson, Ron Barr, Megan Gunnar, Michael Rutter and others discuss their work in accessible language. Users learn through readings, links, games and extensive video of children, families and caregivers. The Science of ECD has been delivered internationally on three occasions as core content of the graduate course “From Early Child Development to Human Development’ in the Human Development Program at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan. Participants from 11 countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa were enthusiastic users of this resource. Red River College is currently considering options for creating an international version of The Science of ECD. Already regional ECD networks in LAC are proposing its translation and adaptation for use in Latin America.

November 13, 2006

Whether, When and What to Measure in Child Development Project Outcomes. Clyde Hertzman, Director of WHO Social Determinants of Health and Human Early Learning Partnership [ Power Point  9.886KB]; Erika Dunkelberg, Indonesia ECED project team [ Power point 133KB]; and Antonio Lim, Moldova FTI project [ Power Point31KB]. November 2006.

Early brain development (in utero to age 5-6) can set trajectories that affect health, learning, and behavior throughout life. There is a need for a population-based tool to assess early child development to identify where there are children who are "developmentally at risk" with respect to school readiness, if communities and societies are to improve the outcomes for their children and the future quality of their population. Clyde Herztman, Director of WHO Social Determinants of Health and Human Early Learning Partnership presented the concept/opportunity/need for a population-based indicator of ECD globally; showed what have accomplished with the Early Development Instrument (EDI) and presented the generic list of "pro's and con's" to using the EDI. Antonio Lim, Moldova FTI Project, and Erika Dunkelberg, Indonesia ECED Project, presented the country perspectives since both are considering using the EDI. Participants assessed how the information on ECD outcomes can assist in ECD policy/programs at multiple levels of society, from community development to national policy to improve the life chances of children.

October 19, 2006

HIPPY- Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters. Miriam Westheimer, Director of International Network of Hippy Programs. October 2006.

Developed in Israel, HIPPY is a home-based, parent focused, early childhood program that utilizes a curriculum to promote parent-child educational interactions. Parents are trained by paraprofessionals from their own communities and the paraprofessionals are trained by their local coordinators who receive support from national or international networks. Dr. Westheimer gave a brief overview of the HIPPY program, which has been disseminated in eight countries. She highlighted the theoretical underpinnings of the program, its research base and cultural adaptations that continue to evolve as the program develops. She focused on the experiences and lessons learned in implementing the program in two developing countries - South Africa and El Salvador. To learn more about the HIPPY program visit the HIPPY International website

Mr. Juan Sánchez and Ms. Elvira Sanchez presented the "Learning to Live Together in Peace from Early Childhood" curriculum, which they developed at the World Association for Early Childhood Education (WAECE).  The association conducted a survey in 20 English and Spanish speaking countries on how children perceive and understand the notion of 'peace'. This curriculum was designed based on the survey findings that promotes the value of peace.The curriculum is available to everyone and can be downloaded, gratis, from the WAECE website( www.waece.org). The WAECE evaluates its use and receives feedback from users through its website.  The curriculum was launched two years ago.  The curriculum resource materials are available in Spanish and English. It is now being translated to Russian.  In April 2007, the WAECE will host a conference on the theme of early childhood curriculum for peace  in Albacete Spain.

In this presentation the Task Team Leader Mae Chu Chang and her team members described the preparation process of the Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) project in Indonesia. Mrs. Chu Chang gave an overview of ECED in Indonesia and focus on the client engagement process, the synergies between the sector work supported by the World Bank and the project preparation. She described how the government was brought on board for the planning and financing stages. Erika Dunkelberg talked about the sector work findings of the project and Sophie Naudeau presented the project design. The presenters then lead a discussion on the issues and challenges related to policy design and implementation of a project and Bank and Government involvement.

Most CCT programs provide cash transfers to poor families while requiring that they make use of a pre-determined list of human capital forming services.  So far these have focused on traditional preventive health care for young children and pregnant women.  Children usually get regular check-ups, which should include immunization and growth monitoring.  Pregnant women get check-ups.  Mothers of all aged children are to attend periodic health education lectures.   Evaluations show that service use has indeed increased due to the programs.  Children's nutritional status has improved in some cases.  Other indicators of early childhood development have been studied less, but not improved in the cases studied.   Are opportunities being missed?   In this brainstorming session Mary Eming Young and Meera Shekar proposed some ideas of what CCT could or should do more on the ECD or nutrition front, incorporating ideas from practice outside CCT programs and Cornelia Tesiluc, who works on CCT programs shared her experience in Jamaica.   Discussion focused on how those ideas might and might not fit into a CCT program.