Strengthening Caregiver-Child Interaction in Rural Senegal: Successes and Challenges of Tostan’s Parenting Program

讲座内容：Insome areas of rural Africa, long-standing cultural traditions and beliefs maydiscourage parents from verbally engaging with their young children. This studyassessed the effectiveness of a parenting program designed to encourage verbalengagement between caregivers and infants in Wolof-speaking villages in ruralSenegal. Caregivers (n= 443) andtheir 4- to 31-month-old children were observed at baseline in 2013 and 1 yearlater at follow-up. Results showed that caregivers in program villages nearlydoubled the amount of child-directed speech during a play session compared tobaseline, whereas caregivers in matched comparison villages showed no change.After 1 year, children in program villages produced more utterances, and showedgreater improvement in vocabulary and other language outcomes compared tochildren in comparison villages.