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This paper experimentally evaluates a large-scale and low-cost parenting program targeting poor families in Chile. Households in 162 public health centers were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group, a second group that was offered eight weekly group parenting sessions, and a third group that was offered the same eight group sessions plus two sessions of guided interactions between parents and children focused on responsive play and dialogic reading. Three years after the end of the intervention, the receptive vocabulary and the socio-emotional development of children of families participating in either of the treatment arms improved (by 0.43 and 0.54 standard deviation, respectively) relative to children of nonparticipating families. There were no statistically detectable impacts on other types of skills. The treatments also led to improvements in home environments and parenting behaviors of comparable magnitudes, which far outlasted the short duration of the intervention. A simple mediation analysis suggests that up to 13 percent of treatment impacts on language, and up to 36 percent of impacts on child socio-emotional development, can be attributed to changes in the home environment, as well as in nurturing and discipline parenting behaviors.

Early Childhood Development --- Education

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Arsenic contamination in shallow groundwater aquifers remains a major barrier to providing access to safe drinking water in Bangladesh. Chronic exposure to arsenic has been shown to cause serious health impacts, including various cancers, skin lesions, neurological damage, heart disease, and hypertension. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown cognitive impacts on memory, linguistic-abstraction, attention, learning, and physical ability. The neurotoxic effects of arsenic could be particularly harmful for children during their critical growth periods and have impacts on early childhood development. This study uses cross-sectional data from the nationally representative 2012-13 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey to investigate the effects of arsenic contamination in drinking water on early childhood development outcomes in a sample of around 7,500 children ages 3-5 years. Early childhood development is measured in four skills domains: literacy-numeracy, physical, social-emotional, and learning using the Early Childhood Development Index. Arsenic contamination is measured in source drinking water at the cluster-level. After controlling for a range of demographic, social, and economic characteristics of households, the results show that arsenic contamination is significantly and negatively associated with the overall Early Childhood Development Index, on outcomes within the physical, social-emotional, and learning skills domains. Further, there is a clear dose-response relationship, where those children with exposure to higher concentrations of arsenic have worse developmental outcomes.

Arsenic --- Early Childhood Development --- Health --- Water Quality

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This paper evaluates a government program in Malawi, which aimed to improve quality at community-based childcare centers and complemented these efforts with a group-based parenting support program. Children in the integrated intervention arm (teacher training and parenting) had significantly higher scores in measures of language and socio-emotional development than children in centers receiving teacher training alone at the 18-month follow-up. However, the study finds no effects on child assessments at the 36-month follow-up. Significant improvements at the centers relating to classroom organization and teacher behavior in the teacher-training only arm did not translate into improvements in child outcomes at either follow-up. The findings suggest that, in resource-poor settings with informal preschools, programs that integrate parenting support within preschools may be more effective than programs that simply improve classroom quality.

Early Childhood Development --- Education --- Parenting Education --- Preschool Teacher Training

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Early mathematics learning has garnered considerable attention globally over the past few years. This increased attention is motivated by global research pointing to the importance of early mathematics in supporting children`s later academic development. The need to ensure that children have explicit and planned opportunities to develop foundational mathematics skills has led to the development of research-based early mathematics curricula that clearly articulate the types of mathematics learning experiences young children can and should have at different points in their learning pathways. The present study was commissioned by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education to review the Palestinian kindergarten (KG) curriculum framework with a focus on the early mathematics progression that it puts forward. Specifically, the study aims to provide answers to three questions: (1) to what extent is the curriculum structured along a developmental progression that reflects the latest cognitive research on how children learn mathematics from an early age?; (2) how does the Palestinian early mathematics curriculum compare to that of other countries with established KG systems, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and Singapore?; and (3) how well does the curriculum align with the Grade 1 Palestinian mathematics curriculum? It then puts forward a number of recommendations to improve early mathematics learning in KG classrooms.

Curriculum --- Curriculum and instruction --- Early childhood development --- Education --- Primary education

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SABER-School Feeding (SABER-SF) is a useful approach to assessing the school feeding policy situationand systems in any country to identify the gaps and plan appropriate capacity development plans and/orroad maps with the government and other stakeholders. It helps countries strengthen their national schoolfeeding programs and/or transition to national school feeding programs with solid policies and systemswhen applicable, and assess progress of implementing each indicator. This manual aims to assist users (government institutions, PCD, World Bank, WFP, and otherstakeholders) to understand, plan, and implement the SABER-SF exercise at the country level. It builds upon the experiences from national SABER-SF workshops held during 2014. The SABER-SF exercise should be as inclusive as possible to ensure broad ownership and support for its implementation. SABER consists of a structured questionnaire whose responses are determined based on consultation with representatives from relevant stakeholders. Stakeholder engagement and consensus building are integral parts of the SABER process as described in this manual. The manual contains a brief explanation of SABER-SF in section two, followed by a discussion in section three of the preparation of the SABER-SF exercise and data collection procedures. Section four explains theme thodology and planning process for a SABER-SF workshop, completion of the questionnaire (and the rationale behind each question or set of questions), and how to use each of the SABER-SF tools includingthe Framework Rubrics and the Scoring Rubrics. Section five covers the process of publicizing the SABERSF report, and section six talks about planning for next steps after the SABER-SF exercise. Section 7provides a timeline for implementing the SABER-SF exercise and quality assurance measures. The manual also includes an annex with the SABER-SF questionnaire and the Framework Rubrics. The annex alsodetails ways to contact the SABER team at the World Bank for any questions or comments in addition toa list of additional resources.

Early Childhood Development --- Education --- Education For All --- Food & Nutrition Policy --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- School Health