The Reach Up Parenting Program, Child Development, and Maternal Depression: A Meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Evidence is needed on effective approaches to build parents' ability to promote child development feasible in low- and middle-income countries. Our objective was to synthesize impact of the Reach Up early childhood parenting program in several low- and middle-income countries and examine moderation by family and implementation characteristics. METHODS: Systematic search using PubMed and Academic Search Elite/EBSCO Host. Randomized controlled trials of the Reach Up program from 1985 to February 2022 were selected. Data were extracted by 2 independent researchers. Primary outcomes were child cognitive, language, and motor development. Secondary outcomes were home stimulation and maternal depressive symptoms. We synthesized pooled effect sizes using random effect inverse-variance weighting and effect modification by testing pooled subgroup effect estimates using the χ2 test for heterogeneity. RESULTS: Average effect size across 18 studies ranged from 0.49 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.32 to 0.66) for cognition, 0.38 (CI 0.24 to 0.51) for language, 0.27 (CI 0.13 to 0.40) for motor development, 0.37 (CI 0.21 to 0.54) for home stimulation, and -0.09 (CI -0.19 to 0.01) for maternal depressive symptoms. Impacts were larger in studies targeted to undernourished children, with mean enrollment older than age 12 months and intervention duration 6 to 12 months. Quality of evidence assessed with the Cochrane Assessment of Risk of Bias and GRADE system was moderate. Instruments used to assess child development varied. In moderator analyses, some subgroups included few studies. CONCLUSIONS: Reach Up benefits child development and home stimulation and is adaptable across cultures and delivery methods. Child and implementation characteristics modified the effects, with implications for scaling.

The creation of the Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) for children aged 0-3 years: combining subject matter expert judgements with big data.

INTRODUCTION: With the ratification of the Sustainable Development Goals, there is an increased emphasis on early childhood development (ECD) and well-being. The WHO led Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) project aims to provide population and programmatic level measures of ECD for 0-3 years that are valid, reliable and have psychometrically stable performance across geographical, cultural and language contexts. This paper reports on the creation of two measures: (1) the GSED Short Form (GSED-SF)-a caregiver reported measure for population-evaluation-self-administered with no training required and (2) the GSED Long Form (GSED-LF)-a directly administered/observed measure for programmatic evaluation-administered by a trained professional. METHODS: We selected 807 psychometrically best-performing items using a Rasch measurement model from an ECD measurement databank which comprised 66 075 children assessed on 2211 items from 18 ECD measures in 32 countries. From 766 of these items, in-depth subject matter expert judgements were gathered to inform final item selection. Specifically collected were data on (1) conceptual matches between pairs of items originating from different measures, (2) developmental domain(s) measured by each item and (3) perceptions of feasibility of administration of each item in diverse contexts. Prototypes were finalised through a combination of psychometric performance evaluation and expert consensus to optimally identify items. RESULTS: We created the GSED-SF (139 items) and GSED-LF (157 items) for tablet-based and paper-based assessments, with an optimal set of items that fit the Rasch model, met subject matter expert criteria, avoided conceptual overlap, covered multiple domains of child development and were feasible to implement across diverse settings. CONCLUSIONS: State-of-the-art quantitative and qualitative procedures were used to select of theoretically relevant and globally feasible items representing child development for children aged 0-3 years. GSED-SF and GSED-LF will be piloted and validated in children across diverse cultural, demographic, social and language contexts for global use.

Protocol for validation of the Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) for children under 3 years of age in seven countries.

INTRODUCTION: Children's early development is affected by caregiving experiences, with lifelong health and well-being implications. Governments and civil societies need population-based measures to monitor children's early development and ensure that children receive the care needed to thrive. To this end, the WHO developed the Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) to measure children's early development up to 3 years of age. The GSED includes three measures for population and programmatic level measurement: (1) short form (SF) (caregiver report), (2) long form (LF) (direct administration) and (3) psychosocial form (PF) (caregiver report). The primary aim of this protocol is to validate the GSED SF and LF. Secondary aims are to create preliminary reference scores for the GSED SF and LF, validate an adaptive testing algorithm and assess the feasibility and preliminary validity of the GSED PF. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will conduct the validation in seven countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, Pakistan, The Netherlands, People's Republic of China, United Republic of Tanzania), varying in geography, language, culture and income through a 1-year prospective design, combining cross-sectional and longitudinal methods with 1248 children per site, stratified by age and sex. The GSED generates an innovative common metric (Developmental Score: D-score) using the Rasch model and a Development for Age Z-score (DAZ). We will evaluate six psychometric properties of the GSED SF and LF: concurrent validity, predictive validity at 6 months, convergent and discriminant validity, and test-retest and inter-rater reliability. We will evaluate measurement invariance by comparing differential item functioning and differential test functioning across sites. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study has received ethical approval from the WHO (protocol GSED validation 004583 20.04.2020) and approval in each site. Study results will be disseminated through webinars and publications from WHO, international organisations, academic journals and conference proceedings. REGISTRATION DETAILS: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/ on 19 November 2021 (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/KX5T7; identifier: osf-registrations-kx5t7-v1).

Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention.

Early childhood development is becoming the focus of policy worldwide. However, the evidence on the effectiveness of scalable models is scant, particularly when it comes to infants in developing countries. In this paper, we describe and evaluate with a cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial an intervention designed to improve the quality of child stimulation within the context of an existing parenting program in Colombia, known as FAMI. The intervention improved children's development by 0.16 of a standard deviation (SD) and children's nutritional status, as reflected in a reduction of 5.8 percentage points of children whose height-for-age is below -1 SD.

Assessing the performance of the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI) in rural India.

Although many education and health programs aim to improve early childhood development, it is challenging to assess developmental levels of infants and small children through large household surveys. The Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI) has been proposed as an adaptable, practical, and low-cost instrument for measuring the developmental status of children under 3 years of age at scale, as it is relatively short and collected by caregiver report. This study employed the CREDI to measure the development of a sample of 994 children ages 22-35 months in rural India and compared the results to those obtained using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III), a reliable and widely used instrument, albeit one not always suited to large-scale data collection efforts given its length, cost, and complexity of administration. The CREDI validation exercise showed that caregivers can provide assessments in keeping with the more interactive (hence more time-consuming and training-intensive) Bayley-III instrument. Noteworthy, there was no indication that concordance of the instruments differed by education of the caregiver. This is important as it points to alternate feasible tools to measure child development outcomes through large-scale surveys.

Group Sessions or Home Visits for Early Childhood Development in India: A Cluster RCT.

OBJECTIVES: Poor early childhood development in low- and middle-income countries is a major public health problem. Efficacy trials have shown the potential of early childhood development interventions but scaling up is costly and challenging. Guidance on effective interventions' delivery is needed. In an open-label cluster-randomized control trial, we compared the effectiveness of weekly home visits and weekly mother-child group sessions. Both included nutritional education, whose effectiveness was tested separately. METHODS: In Odisha, India, 192 villages were randomly assigned to control, nutritional education, nutritional education and home visiting, or nutritional education and group sessions. Mothers with children aged 7 to 16 months were enrolled (n = 1449). Trained local women ran the two-year interventions, which comprised demonstrations and interactions and targeted improved play and nutrition. Primary outcomes, measured at baseline, midline (12 months), and endline (24 months), were child cognition, language, motor development, growth and morbidity. RESULTS: Home visiting and group sessions had similar positive average (intention-to-treat) impacts on cognition (home visiting: 0.324 SD, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.152 to 0.496, P = .001; group sessions: 0.281 SD, 95% CI: 0.100 to 0.463, P = .007) and language (home visiting: 0.239 SD, 95% CI: 0.072 to 0.407, P = .009; group sessions: 0.302 SD, 95% CI: 0.136 to 0.468, P = .001). Most benefits occurred in the first year. Nutrition-education had no benefit. There were no consistent effects on any other primary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Group sessions cost $38 per child per year and were as effective on average as home visiting, which cost $135, implying an increase by a factor of 3.5 in the returns to investment with group sessions, offering a more scalable model. Impacts materialize in the first year, having important design implications.

Predictive validity in middle childhood of short tests of early childhood development used in large scale studies compared to the Bayley-III, the Family Care Indicators, height-for-age, and stunting: A longitudinal study in Bogota, Colombia.

There is increasing global commitment to establish early childhood interventions that promote the development of the millions of disadvantaged children in low- and middle-income countries not reaching their developmental potential. However, progress is hindered by the lack of valid developmental tests feasible for use at large scale. Consequently, there is an urgent need for such tests. Whilst screeners and single-domain tests ('short tests') are used as alternatives, their predictive validity in these circumstances is unknown. A longitudinal study in Bogota, Colombia began in 2011 when 1,311 children ages 6-42 months were given the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) by psychologists and randomized to receive one of two batteries of short tests under survey conditions. Concurrent validity of the short tests with the Bayley-III ('gold standard') was reported. In 2016, at 6-8 years, 940 of these children were given tests of IQ (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, WISC-V) and school achievement (arithmetic, reading, and vocabulary) by psychologists. We compared the ability of the short tests, the Family Care Indicators (FCI), height-for-age, stunting (median height-for-age <-2 SD), and the Bayley-III to predict IQ and achievement in middle childhood. Predictive validity increased with age for all tests, and cognition and language were usually the highest scales. At 6-18 months, all tests had trivial predictive ability. Thereafter, the Bayley-III had the highest predictive validity, but the Denver Developmental Screening Test was the most feasible and valid short test and could be used with little validity loss compared with the Bayley-III. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory at 19-30 months and the FCI under 31 months predicted IQ and school achievement as well as the Bayley-III. The FCI had higher predictive validity than stunting and height-for-age, and could be added to stunting for use as a population-based indicator of child development.

Effects of a scalable home-visiting intervention on child development in slums of urban India: evidence from a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: An estimated 63.4 million Indian children under 5 years are at risk of poor development. Home visits that use a structured curriculum to help caregivers enhance the quality of the home stimulation environment improve developmental outcomes. However, achieving effectiveness in poor urban contexts through scalable models remains challenging. METHODS: Using a cluster randomised controlled trial, we evaluated a psychosocial stimulation intervention, comprising weekly home visits for 18 months, in urban slums of Cuttack, Odisha, India. The intervention is complementary to existing early childhood services in India and was run and managed through a local branch of a national NGO. The study ran from August 2013 to July 2015. We enrolled 421 children aged 10-20 months from 54 slums. Slums were randomised to intervention or control. Primary outcomes were children's cognitive, receptive language, expressive language and fine motor development assessed using the Bayley-III. Prespecified intent-to-treat analysis investigated impacts and heterogeneity by gender. TRIAL REGISTRATIONS: ISRCTN89476603, AEARCTR-0000169. RESULTS: Endline data for 378 (89.8%) children were analysed. Attrition was balanced between groups. We found improvements of 0.349 of a standard deviation (SD; p = .005, stepdown p = .017) to cognition while impacts on receptive language, expressive language and fine motor development were, respectively, 0.224 SD (p = .099, stepdown p = .184), 0.192 SD (p = .085, stepdown p = .184) and 0.111 (p = .385, stepdown p = .385). A child development factor improved by 0.301 SD (p = .032). Benefits were larger for boys. The quality of the home stimulation environment also improved. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that a potentially scalable home-visiting intervention is effective in poor urban areas.

The D-score: a metric for interpreting the early development of infants and toddlers across global settings.

INTRODUCTION: Early childhood development can be described by an underlying latent construct. Global comparisons of children's development are hindered by the lack of a validated metric that is comparable across cultures and contexts, especially for children under age 3 years. We constructed and validated a new metric, the Developmental Score (D-score), using existing data from 16 longitudinal studies. METHODS: Studies had item-level developmental assessment data for children 0-48 months and longitudinal outcomes at ages >4-18 years, including measures of IQ and receptive vocabulary. Existing data from 11 low-income, middle-income and high-income countries were merged for >36 000 children. Item mapping produced 95 'equate groups' of same-skill items across 12 different assessment instruments. A statistical model was built using the Rasch model with item difficulties constrained to be equal in a subset of equate groups, linking instruments to a common scale, the D-score, a continuous metric with interval-scale properties. D-score-for-age z-scores (DAZ) were evaluated for discriminant, concurrent and predictive validity to outcomes in middle childhood to adolescence. RESULTS: Concurrent validity of DAZ with original instruments was strong (average r=0.71), with few exceptions. In approximately 70% of data rounds collected across studies, DAZ discriminated between children above/below cut-points for low birth weight (<2500 g) and stunting (-2 SD below median height-for-age). DAZ increased significantly with maternal education in 55% of data rounds. Predictive correlations of DAZ with outcomes obtained 2-16 years later were generally between 0.20 and 0.40. Correlations equalled or exceeded those obtained with original instruments despite using an average of 55% fewer items to estimate the D-score. CONCLUSION: The D-score metric enables quantitative comparisons of early childhood development across ages and sets the stage for creating simple, low-cost, global-use instruments to facilitate valid cross-national comparisons of early childhood development.

[Context and results of early childhood development in 12 to 59 months old children living in Mexico]. / Contexto y resultados del desarrollo infantil temprano en niños y niñas de 12 a 59 meses en México.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate early childhood development (ECD) and its determinants in 12 to 59 months old children residents of communities <100 000 inhabitants. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición of communities <100 000 inhabitants (Ensanut 100k) evaluated language level, access to ECD care services and standardized indicators of the eight quality of the development environment. We report indicator prevalence and standardized language scores according to variables of interest. RESULTS: 20.7% of children attended eight wellchild care visits within the first year of life, 13.0% received an ECD assessment, 75.0% receive support for learning, 23.4% have books and 57.7% experiment violent discipline. Improved language levels are associate with socioeconomic capacities, maternal education, preschool attendance, support for learning and household books. Children exposed to more protective factors present a language level 1.5 standard deviations higher than their peers exposed to more risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to increase the coverage of ECD care services and to improve early development opportunities within households.

OBJETIVO: Evaluar el desarrollo infantil temprano (DIT) y sus determinantes en niños/as de 12 a 59 meses residentes en localidades de menos de 100 000 habitantes. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: . La Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición en localidades con menos de 100 000 habitantes (Ensanut 100k) evaluó el nivel de lenguaje, acceso a servicios de atención al DIT e indicadores de calidad del contexto de desarrollo. Se estiman prevalencias de indicadores y puntajes estandarizados de lenguaje según variables de interés. RESULTADOS: 20.7% de los niños/as asistió a ocho consultas del niño sano en su primer año, 13.0% recibió evaluación de DIT, 75.0% recibe apoyo al aprendizaje, 23.4% cuenta con libros y 57.7% sufre disciplina violenta. Mejores niveles de lenguaje se asocian con las capacidades económicas, escolaridad materna, asistencia a preescolar, apoyo al aprendizaje y acceso a libros. Los niños/as expuestos a más factores protectores presentan nivel de lenguaje 1.5 DE mayor que en niños/as con más factores de riesgo. CONCLUSIONES: Se requiere aumentar la cobertura de atención al DIT y mejorar las oportunidades de desarrollo en hogares.

Contexto y resultados del desarrollo infantil temprano en niños y niñas de 12 a 59 meses en México / Context and results of early childhood development in 12 to 59 months old children living in Mexico

Resumen: Objetivo: Evaluar el desarrollo infantil temprano (DIT) y sus determinantes en niños/as de 12 a 59 meses residentes en localidades de menos de 100 000 habitantes. Material y métodos: La Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición en localidades con menos de 100 000 habitantes (Ensanut 100k) evaluó el nivel de lenguaje, acceso a servicios de atención al DIT e indicadores de calidad del contexto de desarrollo. Se estiman prevalencias de indicadores y puntajes estandarizados de lenguaje según variables de interés. Resultados: 20.7% de los niños/as asistió a ocho consultas del niño sano en su primer año, 13.0% recibió evaluación de DIT, 75.0% recibe apoyo al aprendizaje, 23.4% cuenta con libros y 57.7% sufre disciplina violenta. Mejores niveles de lenguaje se asocian con las capacidades económicas, escolaridad materna, asistencia a preescolar, apoyo al aprendizaje y acceso a libros. Los niños/as expuestos a más factores protectores presentan nivel de lenguaje 1.5 DE mayor que en niños/as con más factores de riesgo. Conclusión: Se requiere aumentar la cobertura de atención al DIT y mejorar las oportunidades de desarrollo en hogares.

Abstract: Objective: To evaluate early childhood development (ECD) and its determinants in 12 to 59 months old children residents of communities <100 000 inhabitants. Materials and methods: The Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutrición of communities <100 000 inhabitants (Ensanut 100k) evaluated language level, access to ECD care services and standardized indicators of the eight quality of the development environment. We report indicator prevalence and standardized language scores according to variables of interest. Results: 20.7% of children attended eight well-child care visits within the first year of life, 13.0% received an ECD assessment, 75.0% receive support for learning, 23.4% have books and 57.7% experiment violent discipline. Improved language levels are associate with socioeconomic capacities, maternal education, preschool attendance, support for learning and household books. Children exposed to more protective factors present a language level 1.5 standard deviations higher than their peers exposed to more risk factors. Conclusion: There is a need to increase the coverage of ECD care services and to improve early development opportunities within households.

Challenges to capture the big five personality traits in non-WEIRD populations.

Can personality traits be measured and interpreted reliably across the world? While the use of Big Five personality measures is increasingly common across social sciences, their validity outside of western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) populations is unclear. Adopting a comprehensive psychometric approach to analyze 29 face-to-face surveys from 94,751 respondents in 23 low- and middle-income countries, we show that commonly used personality questions generally fail to measure the intended personality traits and show low validity. These findings contrast with the much higher validity of these measures attained in internet surveys of 198,356 self-selected respondents from the same countries. We discuss how systematic response patterns, enumerator interactions, and low education levels can collectively distort personality measures when assessed in large-scale surveys. Our results highlight the risk of misinterpreting Big Five survey data and provide a warning against naïve interpretations of personality traits without evidence of their validity.

Observing home-visiting quality at scale with the home visit rating scales and a supervisor checklist in Peru.

As home-visiting programs expand, there is a need to develop cost-effective tools to monitor their quality at scale. We compare the Home Visit Rating Scales (HOVRS), an instrument to measure home-visit process quality widely used in the United States, to a checklist designed for the Peruvian national home-visiting program, Cuna Mas. Both instruments were administered to a sample of 554 home visits and an equal number of mother-child dyads by their 176 home visitors. While the HOVRS was scored on video recordings of the visits by trained coders, the checklist was scored live by Cuna Mas supervisors. We assessed the validity of both measures in their first application in rural Peru, compared their performance, and selected a subset of items in the checklist to propose a simplified, shorter, and more cost-efficient instrument. To this end, we reorganized checklist items into constructs that best mapped those covered by the HOVRS and selected the highest performing according to predefined criteria. We found that both the HOVRS and the checklist had high reliability and acceptable levels of validity. We argue that the simplified checklist could prove useful for quality monitoring of service delivery of at-scale home-visiting programs and as a tool to support in-service training.

A medida que los programas de visita a casa se expanden, hay una necesidad de desarrollar herramientas de costo eficaz para vigilar la calidad de los mismos a una escala. Comparamos las Escalas de Evaluación de Visitas a Casa (HOVRS), un instrumento para medir la calidad de los procesos de visita a casa ampliamente usado en los Estados Unidos, con una lista de control diseñada para el programa nacional de visitas a casa de Perú, Cuna Mas. Los 176 visitadores a casa le administraron ambos documentos a un grupo muestra de 554 visitas a casa y a un número equivalente de díadas mamá-niño. Los codificadores entrenados evaluaron HOVRS por medio de grabaciones de video de las visitas, mientras que la lista de control fue evaluada en persona por los supervisores de Cuna Mas. Nosotros evaluamos la validez de ambas medidas en su primera puesta en práctica en el Perú rural, comparamos su rendimiento y seleccionamos un subgrupo de categorías en la lista de control para proponer un instrumento simplificado, más corto y de costo más eficaz. Con este fin, reorganizamos las categorías de la lista de control en segmentos que mejor cubren aquellas que están presentes en HOVRS y seleccionamos las que presentan mayor rendimiento de acuerdo con criterios predefinidos. Nos dimos cuenta de que tanto HOVRS como la lista de control presentaban una alta confiabilidad y niveles aceptables de validez. Sostenemos que la lista de control simplificada pudiera demostrar utilidad en cuanto a la calidad de la supervisión del ofrecimiento del servicio de programas de visitas a casa a una escala y como una herramienta para apoyar la capacitación en el empleo.

Du fait que les programmes de visite à domicile se développement, on voit un besoin de développer également des outils rentables afin de contrôler leur qualité à grande échelle. Nous comparons les Echelles d'Evaluation de la Visite à Domicile (en anglais Home Visit Rating Scales, soit HOVRS), un instrument destiné à mesurer la qualité du processus de visite à domicile largement utilisé aux Etats-Unis, à une checklist conçue pour le programme national péruvien de visite à domicile, Cuna Mas. Les deux instruments ont été utilisés avec un échantillon de 554 visites à domiciles et une nombre égal de dyades mère-enfant par leurs 176 visiteurs à domicile. Alors que la HOVRS était évaluée au moyen d'enregistrements vidéo des visites par des évaluateurs entraînés, la checklist a été évaluée en temps réel par les superviseurs de Cuna Mas. Nous avons évalué la validité des deux mesures dans leur première application dans le Pérou rural, comparé leur performance, et sélectionné un sous-groupe d'éléments de la checklist afin de proposer un instrument simplifié, plus court et plus rentable. Pour ce faire nous avons réorganisé les éléments de la checklist en structures cartographiant le mieux ceux couverts par les HOVRS et sélectionné les plus performants selon des critères prédéfinis. Nous avons trouvé qu'à la fois les HOVRS et la checklist faisaient preuve d'une fiabilité élevée et de niveaux de validité acceptables. Nous concluons que la checklist simplifiée pourrait s'avérer utile pour le contrôle de la qualité des prestations de service de programmes de visites à domicile à grande échelle et en tant qu'outil utilisé pour soutenir la formation continue.

Evolution of the wealth gap in child development and mediating pathways: Evidence from a longitudinal study in Bogota, Colombia.

Large gaps in cognition and language on the Bayley-III between the top and bottom household wealth quartiles in 1,330 children aged 6-42 months in a representative sample of low- and middle-income families in Bogota were previously shown. Maternal education and the home environment mediated these wealth effects, whereas height-for-age mediated a small amount of the language deficit only. At ages 6-8 years, we relocated 72% of the children and assessed their IQ on the WISC-V, school achievement, and behavior to investigate the evolution of the wealth gaps and potential mediators. The wealth gap in IQ at 6-8 years was significantly larger than that in a factor combining Bayley-III language and cognition at 6-42 months; whereas the gap in achievement was larger but not significantly. Moreover, in cross-sectional analysis, the IQ gap increased from 6 to 8 years reaching over 1 SD. In contrast, the gap in behavior was not significant in either childhood stage. Parental education and early home environment remained major mediators of the wealth gap in IQ and achievement at 6-8 years; later home environment and attending private education also had an effect; and early height-for-age was no longer significant. The home environment partly mediated the effect of parental education on wealth. All mediators combined explained most of the variance in the wealth gap; the remaining gaps being not significant. Results highlight the importance of the early home environment and suggest that interventions focusing on that should have long-term benefits. Also, continued intervention through to 8 years may be desirable. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/_U53iXNww3I.

Impacts 2 years after a scalable early childhood development intervention to increase psychosocial stimulation in the home: A follow-up of a cluster randomised controlled trial in Colombia.

BACKGROUND: Poor early childhood development (ECD) in low- and middle-income countries is a major concern. There are calls to universalise access to ECD interventions through integrating them into existing government services but little evidence on the medium- or long-term effects of such scalable models. We previously showed that a psychosocial stimulation (PS) intervention integrated into a cash transfer programme improved Colombian children's cognition, receptive language, and home stimulation. In this follow-up study, we assessed the medium-term impacts of the intervention, 2 years after it ended, on children's cognition, language, school readiness, executive function, and behaviour. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Study participants were 1,419 children aged 12-24 months at baseline from beneficiary households of the cash transfer programme, living in 96 Colombian towns. The original cluster randomised controlled trial (2009-2011) randomly allocated the towns to control (N = 24, n = 349), PS (N = 24, n = 357), multiple micronutrient (MN) supplementation (N = 24, n = 354), and combined PS and MN (N = 24, n = 359). Interventions lasted 18 months. In this study (26 September 2013 to 11 January 2014), we assessed impacts on cognition, language, school readiness, executive function, and behaviour 2 years after intervention, at ages 4.5-5.5 years. Testers, but not participants, were blinded to treatment allocation. Analysis was on an intent-to-treat basis. We reassessed 88.5% of the children in the original study (n = 1,256). Factor analysis of test scores yielded 2 factors: cognitive (cognition, language, school readiness, executive function) and behavioural. We found no effect of the interventions after 2 years on the cognitive factor (PS: -0.031 SD, 95% CI -0.229-0.167; MN: -0.042 SD, 95% CI -0.249-0.164; PS and MN: -0.111 SD, 95% CI -0.311-0.089), the behavioural factor (PS: 0.013 SD, 95% CI -0.172-0.198; MN: 0.071 SD, 95% CI -0.115-0.258; PS and MN: 0.062 SD, 95% CI -0.115-0.239), or home stimulation. Study limitations include that behavioural development was measured through maternal report and that very small effects may have been missed, despite the large sample size. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence that a scalable PS intervention benefited children's development 2 years after it ended. It is possible that the initial effects on child development were too small to be sustained or that the lack of continued impact on home stimulation contributed to fade out. Both are likely related to compromises in implementation when going to scale and suggest one should not extrapolate from medium-term effects of small efficacy trials to scalable interventions. Understanding the salient differences between small efficacy trials and scaled-up versions will be key to making ECD interventions effective tools for policymakers. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN18991160.

Mediating pathways in the socio-economic gradient of child development: Evidence from children 6-42 months in Bogota.

Research has previously shown a gap of near 0.5 of a standard deviation (SD) in cognition and language development between the top and bottom household wealth quartile in children aged 6-42 months in a large representative sample of low- and middle-income families in Bogota, using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. The gaps in fine motor and socio-emotional development were about half that size. Developmental deficits increased with age. The current study explored the associations amongst child development, household socio-economic status (SES), and a set of potential mediating variables-parental characteristics, child biomedical factors, and the quality of the home environment-in this sample. We ran mediation tests to quantify the contribution of these variables to the SES gap, and explored the role of age as a moderator. Parental education, particularly maternal education, and the quality of the home environment mediated the SES gap in all outcomes examined. Height-for-age mediated a small amount of the deficit in language scales only. More educated mothers provided better home stimulation than less educated mothers and the home environment partly mediated the effect of maternal education. These results suggested that in interventions aimed at promoting child development, those focusing on the quality of the home environment should be effective.

Concurrent Validity and Feasibility of Short Tests Currently Used to Measure Early Childhood Development in Large Scale Studies.

In low- and middle-income countries (LIMCs), measuring early childhood development (ECD) with standard tests in large scale surveys and evaluations of interventions is difficult and expensive. Multi-dimensional screeners and single-domain tests ('short tests') are frequently used as alternatives. However, their validity in these circumstances is unknown. We examined the feasibility, reliability, and concurrent validity of three multi-dimensional screeners (Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3), Denver Developmental Screening Test (Denver-II), Battelle Developmental Inventory screener (BDI-2)) and two single-domain tests (MacArthur-Bates Short-Forms (SFI and SFII), WHO Motor Milestones (WHO-Motor)) in 1,311 children 6-42 months in Bogota, Colombia. The scores were compared with those on the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III), taken as the 'gold standard'. The Bayley-III was given at a center by psychologists; whereas the short tests were administered in the home by interviewers, as in a survey setting. Findings indicated good internal validity of all short tests except the ASQ-3. The BDI-2 took long to administer and was expensive, while the single-domain tests were quickest and cheapest and the Denver-II and ASQ-3 were intermediate. Concurrent validity of the multi-dimensional tests' cognitive, language, and fine motor scales with the corresponding Bayley-III scale was low below 19 months. However, it increased with age, becoming moderate-to-high over 30 months. In contrast, gross motor scales' concurrence was high under 19 months and then decreased. Of the single-domain tests, the WHO-Motor had high validity with gross motor under 16 months, and the SFI and SFII expressive scales showed moderate correlations with language under 30 months. Overall, the Denver-II was the most feasible and valid multi-dimensional test and the ASQ-3 performed poorly under 31 months. By domain, gross motor development had the highest concurrence below 19 months, and language above. Predictive validity investigation is needed to further guide the choice of instruments for large scale studies.

Why is multiple micronutrient powder ineffective at reducing anaemia among 12-24 month olds in Colombia? Evidence from a randomised controlled trial.

In Colombia's bottom socio-economic strata, 46.6% of children under two are anaemic. A prevalence of above 20% falls within the WHO guidelines for daily supplementation with multiple micronutrient powder (MNP). To evaluate the effect of daily MNP supplementation on anaemia amongst Colombian children aged 12-24 months we ran a cluster RCT (n=1440). In previous work, we found the intervention had no impact on haemoglobin or anaemia in this population. In this current paper, we investigate this null result and find it cannot be explained by an underpowered study design, inaccurate measurements, low adoption of and compliance with the intervention, or crowding out through dietary substitution. We conclude that our intervention was ineffective at reducing rates of childhood anaemia because MNP itself was inefficacious in our population, rather than poor implementation of or adherence to the planned intervention. Further analysis of our data and secondary data suggests that the evolution with age of childhood anaemia in Colombia, and its causes, appear different from those in settings where MNP has been effective. Firstly, rates of anaemia peak at much earlier ages and then fall rapidly. Secondly, anaemia that remains after the first year of life is relatively, and increasingly as children get older, unrelated to iron deficiency. We suggest that factors during gestation, birth, breastfeeding and early weaning may be important in explaining very high rates of anaemia in early infancy. However, the adverse effects of these factors appear to be largely mitigated by the introduction of solid foods that often include meat. This renders population wide MNP supplementation, provided after a diet of solid foods has become established, an ineffective instrument with which to target Colombia's childhood anaemia problem.

Using the infrastructure of a conditional cash transfer program to deliver a scalable integrated early child development program in Colombia: cluster randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of an integrated early child development intervention, combining stimulation and micronutrient supplementation and delivered on a large scale in Colombia, for children's development, growth, and hemoglobin levels. DESIGN: Cluster randomized controlled trial, using a 2 × 2 factorial design, with municipalities assigned to one of four groups: psychosocial stimulation, micronutrient supplementation, combined intervention, or control. SETTING: 96 municipalities in Colombia, located across eight of its 32 departments. PARTICIPANTS: 1420 children aged 12-24 months and their primary carers. INTERVENTION: Psychosocial stimulation (weekly home visits with play demonstrations), micronutrient sprinkles given daily, and both combined. All delivered by female community leaders for 18 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cognitive, receptive and expressive language, and fine and gross motor scores on the Bayley scales of infant development-III; height, weight, and hemoglobin levels measured at the baseline and end of intervention. RESULTS: Stimulation improved cognitive scores (adjusted for age, sex, testers, and baseline levels of outcomes) by 0.26 of a standard deviation (P=0.002). Stimulation also increased receptive language by 0.22 of a standard deviation (P=0.032). Micronutrient supplementation had no significant effect on any outcome and there was no interaction between the interventions. No intervention affected height, weight, or hemoglobin levels. CONCLUSIONS: Using the infrastructure of a national welfare program we implemented the integrated early child development intervention on a large scale and showed its potential for improving children's cognitive development. We found no effect of supplementation on developmental or health outcomes. Moreover, supplementation did not interact with stimulation. The implementation model for delivering stimulation suggests that it may serve as a promising blueprint for future policy on early childhood development.Trial registration Current Controlled trials ISRCTN18991160.