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Parents as Teachers Program
(Learnings from an early childhood program for mothers & children)
November 2018

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0. Executive Summary 3
1. Introduction 3
1.1. Why early childhood development? 3
1.2. Involvement of Parents 4
1.3. Current State in India 4
2.Program Description 5
2.1. Who are the actors? 5
2.2. Content Modules 6
3. Implementation Details 7
4. Evaluation Metrics 8
4.1. Child Model 8
4.2. Parent Behaviour matrix 8
4.3. Facilitator model 8
5. Results 9
5.1. Quantitative Results 9
5.2. Qualitative Results - Field Observation & Feedback 15
5.2.1. Facilitators 15
5.2.2. Mothers 15
5.2.3. Children 15
6. Unbundling Components 16
6.1. Knowledge 16
6.1.1. Mothers 16
6.1.2. Children 17
6.1.3. Facilitator 18
6.2 Assets 18
6.2.1. Content 18
6.2.1.1. Learning Content 18
6.2.1.2. Assessment Content 19
6.2.2. Integrated Partner App 20
6.2.3. Data Formats 21
6.4 Processes 21
6.4.1. Mothers 22
6.4.2. Facilitators 22
Copyright © (2018) Gyan Prakash Foundation
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0 International
License (CC BY-ND 4.0). To view a copy of the license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

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0. Executive Summary
Learning happens from birth and learning begins at home. The child’s earliest years provide a
unique opportunity to address the different learning needs of a child. The potential benefits include:
improved cognitive development, better schooling outcomes and increased productivity later on in life.
Existing research on outcomes have shown that returns to investment during the child’s early ages are
significant, especially when compared to equivalent investments made much later in life. To ensure
children learn while still young, parents play an important role. Parents and family members are the
child’s first teachers. For illiterate parents in low-income households, their need to make ends meet and
limited literacy severely hampers their ability to spend time and use resources that will be helpful for the
development of their young child. Consequently, the children of these parents risk not reaching their
developmental potential. Currently, almost 68% of grade 3 students in India cannot read simple English
words while 80% can’t perform two-digit subtraction. Since income potential is directly linked to school
learning outcomes, these children tend to earn a lot less into adulthood , thus continuing an inter-
generational poverty cycle.
This book details the components, design, implementation and outcomes of an early childhood program
pilot program ( called ‘Parents as Teachers’ program) conducted in collaboration with Gyan Prakash
Foundation, Pune with EkStep as a technology partner. The program worked with mothers in low-income
families in urban slums to help mothers play a more active role in the development of their child. The
program also aimed to bring about a change in the mindset of mothers about their role in their child's’
development and education. Early childhood experiences have shown a profound impact on brain
development - affecting learning, health and behaviour. The program also developed an evaluation
framework to measure “mindset” change in mothers that can be reused or extended. The program was
implemented over the course of 10 months from January - October 2018 in Pune.
1. Introduction
1.1. Why early childhood development?
Early experiences last a lifetime! The process of learning which starts as early as at the time of
birth and continues for the rest of life, is at its peak during the early years. Additionally, maximum and
fastest brain development occurs from birth to 5 years.
Early childhood is the most crucial period, as the opportunities missed during the early years cannot be
compensated for at later stages of an individual’s life.
Various Early Childhood Development(ECD) programs in developed, as well as developing countries,
claim to have positive outcomes for children, families and communities. The established key benefits of
the ECD programs in the developing world include:

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1. Possibility of reduction in social inequality
2. Reduction in school dropout rates
3. Higher enrolments and less repetitions in school
4. Improved cognitive development and scholastic achievements
5. Improved nutrition and health possibilities for child
Young children respond best to their environment when caregivers use specific play techniques designed
to encourage and stimulate progress to the next level of development. Therefore ECD programs must
1. Sensitize parents on importance of child care
2. Deliver a range of essential services for children and parents
3. Develop capacities of caregivers and teachers
4. Use means of mass communication to enhance caregivers’ parenting knowledge, skills and
practices.
1.2. Involvement of Parents
Parents and family are the first and foremost social contact for a child. They are able to influence the
child’s growth and development in the most meaningful manner. The onus of parenting responsibility is
more on parents than any other family member. There is a gradual weakening of traditional parenting
knowledge and skills due to increasing migration and emergence of nuclear families. Sensitized parents
are a source of spreading awareness at larger level through social peer sharing. Holistic understanding of
parenthood is a long-term investment for the child’s future years by simulating the parenting practices
acquired during early years
1.3. Current State in India
In many underdeveloped and developing countries, only a small portion of children below the age of 5
years attain their full developmental potential because of poverty, nutritional deficiencies and limited
opportunities for learning. Hence the governments must take immediate and necessary actions to ensure
access to Education for Early Childhood Development [EECD] to prepare all children for a better
tomorrow (WHO, 2012)
ICDS program, the face of early childhood development education in India, covers approximately 7.6 million
pregnant women and lactating mothers and around 36 million children less than six years of age.
The ICDS Anganwadi program caters to children between the ages of 2.5 to 5 years, playing an important
role in getting children ready for formal school. Unlike urban areas, where children have the choice of

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attending private run preschools, most children between 3 to 5 years in rural areas attend the anganwadis
program. Parent education and parent awareness is an integral part of the ICDS Anganwadi program.
However, research shows that most anganwadis are not effective in supporting parents’ and fostering
children’s academic learning.
2. Program Description
The ‘Parents As Teachers’ program aims to bring about a change in the mindset of low income parents
about their role in the child’s development and education. The program helps to increase the capacity of
parents to be directly involved in the learning outcomes of their children. The program
● Targets mothers from urban slums and rural areas with children in the age-group of 3-5 years old.
● Covers 9 ECE content modules, developed by GPF, on topics related to child development,
nutrition, parenting and school readiness. These modules are delivered by facilitators through
weekly workshops in the community.
● Follows a 6 month cycle, concluding with supporting parents to enrol children into formal school.
● Builds capabilities of local women to become facilitators to deliver the curriculum to the mothers.
The ‘Parents As Teachers’ program also piloted the use of content from a technology enabled platform.
The modules/content are hosted on the EkStep platform, to eventually help parents access the content
from wherever they are, as long as they have a smartphone. Parents can use the content to go back to the
information shared during the group sessions and practice the discussed strategies at home.
Additionally 5 child-friendly learning modules were created. Parents and children together can view
these modules on a technology device (tab or phone), and engage and interact about the content. The goal
is to empower low income parents to understand how children learn, and to be able to contribute
meaningfully towards their learning and development. These modules focus on developing cognitive and
language skills in the child and prepare them to enter formal school in class 1. Making the content
available on technology will also ease the process of training facilitators to implement the program,
enabling us to scale the program to different low income communities across the State.
2.1. Who are the actors?
Mothers and their children
The program targeted mothers of the children in the age-group of 3-5 years old in urban slums.
Facilitators:
● Are local women from the same slums and villages, selected and trained on a curriculum focusing
on issues related to early childhood development and education
● Conduct weekly workshops on topics related to parenting, child development and school
readiness.
● Regularly support mothers through home visits to understand their practices at home to support
the child’s development.

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2.2. Content Modules
The ‘Parents As Teachers’ program piloted the use of content from a technology enabled platform. The
modules/content are hosted on a technology platform, to eventually help parents access the content from
wherever they are, as long as they have a smartphone. Parents can use the content to go back to the
information shared during the group sessions and practice the discussed strategies at home. The goal is to
empower low income parents to understand how children learn, and to be able to contribute meaningfully
towards their learning and development. Making the content available on technology will also ease the
process of training facilitators to implement the program, enabling us to scale the program to different
low income communities across the state.
Module Topic
1 GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT
In this module, 4 important factors affecting growth
and development were discussed:
1) Proper nutrition 2) Health monitoring 3) Love and
affection, and 4) Stimulating environment
2 CHILD NUTRITION Role of nutrition in development, 4 food groups and
their sources, Nutritious food versus junk food.
Recipes which are Nutritious, low cost, made from
easily available material are demonstrated.
3 CHILD HEALTH Child Health- Preventive measures of health,
monitoring health by indicators and eradication of
health related superstitions.
4 PHYSICAL
DEVELOPMENT
How to give opportunities for gross and fine motor
skill development and using household material
5 COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Understanding components of cognitive development
and giving stimulation thorough different day to day
activities
6 LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
Communication with child , Practicing activities to
encourage language skills in children , phonic and
vocabulary
7 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Understanding the social development process in
children and parents role in social development.

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8 EMOTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
Understanding and handling emotions of children;
Understanding disciplining techniques and the impact
of the various types of disciplining styles.
9 SCHOOL READINESS Preparing children for formal schooling; Discussing
choices such as English medium schools versus
vernacular medium schools, private versus public
schools, etc., documents required for school
admissions.
3. Implementation Details
A broad sequence of implementation is given below:
1. Recruiting facilitators from selected slums/ rural areas
2. Training these facilitators on a digital school readiness curriculum developed by GPF that is built
on EkStep.
3. Facilitators conducted weekly workshops (once a week) with eligible mothers in a rented space in
these slums, and in the anganwadis in the rural areas.
4. Five modules that are child facing, expected to be used at home, were developed- (on cognitive
and language development). This involved the parent and the child together viewing and
interacting with the content.
5. Facilitators also conducted monthly follow ups with mothers at home to measure behavioural
changes in mothers and track growth in the child's’ development.
The 9 topic modules discussed during the weekly workshops/group sessions with mothers are developed
into content that is hosted on a EkStep’s technology platform. Additionally, parents have access to 5
specially created child-friendly learning modules on a technology device (tab or phone). These modules
focus on developing cognitive and language skills in the child, and prepare them to enter formal school in
Class 1. Parents and children come to the center to view the content on the tab together. They view one
module at a time, and engage and interact about the content they are viewing on the device.
For example, to learn about the concept of colours, the mother and the child together go through the
module on ‘colours’ which includes a reading a story about colours, a song about colours, understanding
the colours of vegetables, fruits and other objects, and also answering a few questions related to colours at
the end of the module. This gives the child an opportunity to learn the concept, practice the concept and
see its application in day-to-day life. Every module concludes with ideas for parents to teach the same
concept at home

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4. Evaluation Metrics
4.1. Child Model
To measure the impact of the program on children, a baseline and endline tool was developed to measure
school readiness of the children entering Std 1. The tool measured children’s performance in:
● Language skills
● Cognitive skills
● Pre-academic Math
● A baseline test was conducted at the beginning of the program. 22 children were assessed on the
baseline test
● The endline test was conducted at the end of the program. 27 children assessed on the endline test
The program focused on an indirect approach to improve skills in children through intervention with the
parents.
4.2. Parent Behaviour matrix
To measure the change in parent mindsets, the program focused on parents’ movement on a maturity
model that measured the following:
● Parents Motivation and Participation during group sessions
● Parents self report on practices to improve language and cognitive development in children at
home
● Parents interaction with children while using digital content
This link describes the maturity model in more detail.
4.3. Facilitator model
To measure the efficacy of the facilitators, a maturity model was developed to assess their capabilities in:
● Conceptual understanding
● Learning environment
● Content facilitation
● Planning
● Assessment
● Documentation
● Technology
This link describes the maturity model for a facilitator in more detail.

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5. Results
5.1. Quantitative Results
● Child Outcomes
○ Children’s readiness to enter Class 1 was measured using a School Readiness tool
developed by GPF and EkStep.
○ 22 Children were assessed at the beginning of the program (Jan 2018) and 27 children
were assessed at the end (August 2018) of the program. (21 children were the same for
the pre and the post test. Additionally, 6 children whose mothers had attended the
program in the previous groups and eligible for entering class 1 were also assessed; 1
child dropped out).
○ The tool measured competencies in language, Math and Spatial reasoning.
67% children (18 out of 27 children) showed readiness in both Mathematics and
Language to enter Std 1 at the end of the program. 74% children showed readiness in
language and 70% children showed readiness in Mathematics. Some children showed
readiness in language, but not in Mathematics and vice-versa. 19% children lacked
readiness in both math and language.
● Difference in Pre-test and Post-test
Overall child performance in Language and Math improved from the baseline to the
endline test.

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○ Language Results
Pre- test (n=22)
Post-test (n=27)
Children showed improvement in language at the endline test. Children
performing in the range of 80 to 100% increased from 36% in the pretest to 52%
in the post test. The number of children performing below 60% also reduced
from the pretest to the post test.

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○ Analysis of Performance on Specific Competencies under Language
Children performed better in concepts related to names of vegetables, fruits, and colours.
85% children were able to name at least 5 vegetables, 78% children were able to name at
least 5 fruits, 59% children were able to name at least 5 colours. These form a part of
children’s vocabulary, important before starting formal school.
Little or no improvement was seen in concepts related to general vocabulary (assessed
through picture talk), describing the activities in the picture in complete sentences, and
phonics. Some of the possible reasons include:
1. Requires change in parental behaviour and mindset (to speak/converse with the
child, bring attention to things in their day-to-day environment, point to pictures
and print material and talk about them)
2. Requires parents to have a good vocabulary.
3. Lack of resources such as books, print material etc. at home

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○ Mathematics Results
Pre test (n= 22)
Post test (n=27)
Similar to language, children achieving above 80% marks in Math increased from 36% to
60%. The number of children performing in the 60 to 80% range also reduced from the
pretest to the post test.

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○ Analysis of Performance on Specific Competencies under Math
Children’s performance in concepts related to ‘counting’ and ‘more and less’, and
‘patterns’ improved in the post test.
More than 90% children were able to count the objects shown on the screen (6 pages of
counting different objects).
No change was observed in concepts related to classification and seriation. These may be
complex concepts for parents to practice at home.
It is important to note that these assessments were developed and tested by the internal
GP team. There is a need to have an external assessment for objectivity of results.
Note on Implementation
● Each child took around 20-25 minutes to complete the test (pre as well as post test).
● The facilitator opened each page on the tab, gave the child instructions about to answering the
question, asked the child the question on the screen, waited for the child’s answer, and finally,
scored the child’s response on the tab.
● Some questions (such as classification, patterning, seriation and puzzle) required the facilitator
to present the child with physical materials along with the information on the screen to respond
to the question
2. Parent Outcomes: Change in the mindset of parents participating in the program was measured using
a Parent Maturity Model. The maturity model was developed to understand parents mindset related to
children’s cognitive and language development.

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● 63 % parents were found to be Level 3 and Level 4 at the end of the program
● Since the tool was developed after the program began, a baseline of parents’ mindset on the
maturity model could not be mapped at the beginning of the program.
● Parents score on the maturity model is positively and moderately with children’s score on the
readiness test (correlation=0.6)
● Factors such as parents’ education level, family support, stress levels in the family, number of
children, age of the children and child temperament affect parents’ performance on the maturity
model.
*Names of the mother and the children have been changed for anonymity
A mother’s story
Vaishali Jadhav* lives in a joint family set up. There are 6 members in the
family. Her in-laws stay with her. Vaishali has two children Alok, 5 years
old and Avni, 2 years. Her house is small but very neat and tidy.
When she started coming for ECD group she was not aware about many
things. She used to feed children only 3 times a day. Children were given
money to buy snacks from shop. Alok developed teeth problems due to
eating sweets and candies. When she understood the importance of
nutritious food she started making new recipes at home. With the help of
facilitator she made diet chart for both children. She started following food
timetable and stopped buying outside food.
Vaishali is housewife but she was not aware about the importance of
communicating with children. When children got bored putting on TV was
the only option. After language development session she learnt poems and
started to sing songs with children. She borrowed books from Gyanprakash
library and got into the practice of telling stories to both her children. She
has started communicating with children about new things in the
surrounding.
Her son Atharv was attending tuition class in nearby house. Atharva is in

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Note on implementation
27 Parents were assessed parents on a 4 level maturity model, which included
● Motivation and participation in group sessions
● Self report of practices related to language and cognitive skills at home
● Parent-child interactions during use of technology
5.2. Qualitative Results - Field Observation & Feedback
5.2.1. Facilitators
1. Facilitators focused on the concepts that each child had to learn/practice, and approached the
mother with that perspective. They spoke to the mother about the concepts that her child needed
to practice, and introduced an appropriate module on the tab to cater to those skills. That seemed
to motivate mothers to come and look the the modules on the tab with their child
2. Facilitators also spoke to the mothers about the importance of telling stories to children. They told
the parents that if they didn’t know how to tell stories of what stories to tell, they could come and
see it on the tab. That seemed to appeal to the mothers too.
5.2.2. Mothers
1. Many mothers don’t get to spend one-on-one time with their child at home. However, when they
came to the center to see the modules on the tab, they expressed that they like to come and spend
time with their child here, without any sort of disturbance.
2. Mothers showed interest in using the tab. They felt good that something so expensive was given
to them and they were able to use it well.
3. Some parents were scared/showed anxiety to use the tab. Some facilitators still feel scared to use
the tab
4. Overall, it was observed that parents who showed higher motivation to come for the group
sessions also showed higher motivation to come and see the modules on the tab.
5. Parents related pictures from the stories to their experiences and practices at home (for example-
while reading the story- ‘Maaze Ghar’ parents talked about the pictures in the story and how it
was similar to things in their own house)
6. Some parents went beyond just reading the story. They would ask questions related to the pictures
(they thought of those questions on their own)- for example, the colours of different objects on
the screens, or they would ask the child to count the number of objects.
7. Mothers liked the songs that were integrated into each of the modules
8. Mothers showed interest in watching the same module multiple times- (may be related to the
interest of the child).
5.2.3. Children
1. Children were excited to see the content on the tab. They don’t get to see the tab at home, so this
was a new experience for them.

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6. Unbundling Components
This section aims to articulate the lessons, processes and assets from the intervention that could be useful
for an NGO that aims to replicate or start an early childhood program of their own. In the process, we
have tried to unbundle the important components of the program into 3 sections:
1. Knowledge: We focus on the different actors involved in the intervention and seeks to provide
more context to their motivation, challenges and behaviors during the program.
2. Assets: This section contains a list of all the digital assets that were used during the course of the
program that can be re-used or modified by any interested party. All of the digital assets are
currently available on the EkStep platform and is free to use and modify.
3. Processes: This section focuses on a few core processes in the intervention that the program team
has identified as being “important” for the program to be implemented successfully. These
processes can be replicated/modified by other parties/partners depending on their context setting.
6.1. Knowledge
The different actors involved in the program are:
6.1.1. Mothers
a. What do they care about?
i. Most of the mothers inducted into the program were working as house-helps in
the area. These mothers were working in middle class urban households and it
seems that the environment that they work in influenced the aspirations of many
mothers. Sending their children to a good school so that they could speak English
and being able to use electronic devices just like other people around her were
two big aspirations articulated. In fact, telling them that the program has a tablet
component was a big draw.
ii. All the mothers in the program wanted to support their child in their education
but didn’t know how to support their children. They all believe tutions are
helpful(can’t evaluate a good tution place) and are always looking for places
where they can put their children for the same.
iii. Spending time with the children. Many mothers in the program live in large
families that they don’t have enough time to spend alone with their children. In
that regard, this program was an opportunity for them to spend time with their
children one on one.
iv. Having a formal support system for mothers to deal with daily challenges that
they may face within a household. Before the program, they had no outlet except
for a few friends. For a lot of mothers, this program offered them a chance to
interact with other mothers and discuss each other’s personal lives.
v. Lack of time with the child at home
vi. Often, the decision power on behalf of the child does not lie with the mother.
Influences from extended family members, husbands influence whether the
mother is able to do something for the child or not.

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b. What are some of the characteristics of mothers who showed the most improvement
in the program?
i. Mothers came from smaller families where they had a lot of freedom on what
they did during the day.
ii. Stay-at-home mothers were more regular than mothers who were working
iii. Mothers who were educated were more likely to sustain in the program.
iv. Mothers coming from deeply broken households were unlikely to complete the
program.
*Names of the mother and the children have been changed for anonymity
6.1.2. Children
c. What do they care about?
i. Children need an opportunity to play, have movement, and take part in activities.
Having fun doing whatever they do.
d. How is working with young children different from other children?
i. Young children need to always be occupied with something. While the mother is
learning from the facilitator, it is important that the child is made to do something
at the same time. In this program, one of the facilitators was responsible for only
taking care of the children while mothers were learning. They usually engaged
children in different kinds of play activity.
A mother’s story
Sudha Thote*, mother of Samar (6 years) and Shrutii (5 years, lives in a nuclear
family in Indira Vasahat. Her husband is a driver and spends most of his time
outside home. Sudha has to manage all household duties and take care of her
children. As her children are still young she would find it difficult to manage both
home and children. When she tried to give attention to the children her household
work would get neglected and vice versa.
After coming to the ‘Parents as Teachers’ group sessions she learned of ways to
engage children in meaningful activities. She started communicating with
children while doing work. She also got her children to help her in carrying out
activities like filling water from tap, folding dried clothes, cleaning vegetables,
placing kitchen equipment on the place, all important in developing various skills
in children.
Sudha is educated up to 10th
but she was not confident about helping her children
in their daily studies. From the group session she understood how children learn
and how mothers can contribute to children’s education. She prepared a 1 to 10
number chart and got her children to help in drawing. She prepared all English
letters using sand papers for developing tactile sense. She also prepared picture
book from old school text books. Now, she helps her children in their studies
through play.

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ii. Young children can be very distracted when doing a particular task. It is
important that there are a variety of tasks that a child does in a single day to keep
them engaged.
e. What are the characteristics of children who benefited the most from the program?
i. Children who had mothers who were motivated and conducted activities at home
that they learned at the center performed better.
ii. Mothers who spend time at home with their child performed better.
iii. Mothers who were non-native Marathi speakers perform worse since much of the
material and discussion was in Marathi.
6.1.3. Facilitator
f. What do they care about?
i. The motivation to improve with time.
ii. This is the first job for many facilitators and to be able to support their household
is very empowering.
iii. Many of these facilitators are locked out of the job market for various reasons.
Hence, many are eager to show what they are capable of and use this opportunity
as a stepping to stone to better opportunities.
g. How does one pick a facilitator?
i. Pick people from the same community. They are found to be more intrinsically
motivated to have an impact in their community. It also helps if a known face is
used to mobilize participants for the program.
ii. Every facilitator is expected to complete a basic degree.
iii. The status of the household is important. Facilitators with a lot of issues at home
tend perform poorly over time.
iv. Pre-existing knowledge and awareness of working with young children helps
v. Good communications skills
vi. Good decision-making capabilities.
6.2 Assets
6.2.1. Content
Digital content for the intervention is broken down into two main parts:
6.2.1.1. Learning Content
These digital assets contain lessons for the mother and the child to use during their sessions in the
community center. The intervention consists of 9 modules that are primarily made for
consumption by mothers. Two modules (Language Development & Cognitive development) are
made with the expectation of a mother and a child working together on a tablet. All the content is

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currently available in Marathi and is free to be re-used or modified. The general structure used in
the learning content is a combination of one or more components given below:
a. Module Introduction
b. Information on best practices to adopt at home for mothers
c. Child-facing modules that contain stories, pictures, audio or video that supports
interaction between a mother and a child.
d. An assessment at the end of the module to check for understanding
A screenshot of a sample module is given below. In this module, a mother and child are expected
to go through a poem to engage in a discussion and answer questions at the end of the module.
A video that contains a poem for the mothers and children to go through
6.2.1.2. Assessment Content
e. For children: Baseline and endline tests for children to take at the beginning and end of
the program respectively. Though the topics they test the child is the same, the questions
aren’t the same. A screenshot of the post-test is given below:
A question from the post-test for a child to answer.

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f. For parents: A parent behavior checklist has been created for use by facilitators during
the weekly home-visit. Facilitators are expected to fill in the questions regarding the
mother. A screenshot of the same is given below:
A question for the facilitator to make an observation during the home-visit
6.2.2. Integrated Partner App
For any NGO that wants to collect assessment or interaction of their digital content for an
individual parent or child will need to have a partner app. EkStep cannot access child/parent level
encrypted data that is available in the telemetry. For this, each partner will be provided with a
private key to decrypt the data.
IPA Introduction Screen Picking the user using Details to be filled
the content

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6.2.3. Data Formats
All the data is collected through telemetry. For this intervention, data was captured and analyzed
at the following levels:
1. Baseline/Endline Digital Tests: This table was used to measure the child’s level. The format of
the data analyzed included the child name, the question number, the actual response and the score
received as shown below
2. Session Summaries: This table was used to measure the usage behaviour of mothers on the tablet.
The table contains unique identifiers for mother, the content accessed, the time accessed and how
long the content was used.
3. Monitoring interactions on the tablet: This table was used to measure in-content behaviour of
parents and children. This table gives summary information on each screen(id) of the content and
was used to improve content flow and quality.
6.4 Processes
This section aims to list out the different processes involved in the intervention. Any partner/NGO
wanting to implement a version of this program will have to keep in mind the following:

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6.4.1. Mothers
a. Recruitment
i. After selecting a location, the first step involved conducting a door-to-door
survey of households in the location. The focus of the survey is gather family
details. This was done on paper
ii. These details are important in order to understand the potential number of
mothers that the intervention can reach. It also helps in gauging preliminary
interests from mothers.
iii. We have often noticed that mothers who are managing multiple jobs have very
little time for the program and despite showing interest, tend to drop out of the
program over weeks.
iv. Once the baseline survey is conducted, an awareness drive is conducted by the
facilitators in the community. This is primarily done through poster presentations
where mothers and children are invited to learn more about the program.
Interested mothers sign up for the program.
b. Learning
i. Mothers come to the community center once a week to learn about the topic
selected for the week.
ii. In each session, the facilitator spends about 20 minutes explaining a topic using
digital content followed group discussions and practical demonstrations.
iii. Items/Processes that are easily doable in the context of the mother to pick up and
use were most helpful
iv. Colors are difficult to understand. They are not able to identify the color,
Similarly, mothers find it easy to recognize animals in their context but difficult
otherwise.
c. Monitoring/Follow-up
i. Each mother is observed at home once a week by the facilitator. The facilitator
reinforces what was learnt during the week and gives an opportunity to the
mother to ask questions. Mothers who show promising progress are given
individual lessons on advanced topics during the home visit.
6.4.2. Facilitators
d. Recruitment
i. Using the data from the household survey, a list of possible facilitators(women
between the age of 20-30 is made)
ii. There is an awareness drive that is conducted within the slum that calls for
potential applicants within the community.
iii. Once a short-list is made, a facilitator is chosen based on the following
indicators:
1. Education level
2. Marital Status
3. Employment history
4. Communication skills
5. Family size

23.
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e. Training
i. Facilitators undergo a rigorous 10-day training program where they are
introduced to the early childhood material and taught how to conduct sessions
around it.
ii. Facilitators are also introduced to digital content on the tablet to increase
familiarity with the device and how to integrate them in their lesson plans.
f. Monitoring/Follow-up
i. Fortnightly field visits from GPF management staff to observe facilitators,
document the work and providing feedback
ii. Personal one-on-one meetings with facilitators as and when required.
Copyright © (2018) Gyan Prakash Foundation
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