Christian Science Monitor: In Rural China, Once-hated Family Planners Turn Toddler Advocates

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On March 20th, 2015 the Christian Science Monitor reported from the field on REAP's Perfecting Parenting project.  

The Perfecting Parenting project was designed in response to REAP research showing that a startling 40 percent of China's rural babies were significantly delayed in cognitive or motor development, or both.  The REAP team collected qualitative evidence during their Baby Nutrition project suggesting that these developmental delays may be excacerbated by a lack of interaction with their caregivers.

Therefore, REAP developed the Perfecting Parenting project, a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of a parenting training program on child development.  Since November 2014, a group of "parenting trainers" has travelled to rural villages each week to visit the families of newborn to three-year-old children and teach interactive activities to the children and their caregivers.  

The Christian Science Monitor documents anecdotal evidence that the program is already having a positive impact, not only on the children, but also on their parents, grandparents, and even the "parenting trainers"officials from the National Health and Family Planning Commission who were once responsible for enforcing China's One Child Policy.

"Until six months ago, nobody played much with Li Mengyue, an apple-cheeked two-year-old growing up with her grandma in this remote, hardscrabble village in central China.

"Now, as part of a project to make Chinese village kids smarter, Mengyue's granny is getting weekly classes in how to use toys and books to exercise the little girl's mind.  And in an unexpected twist, the parenting lessons are coming in weekly visits by a woman from the family planning task force — long the most reviled of government agencies.

"Behind the experiment, say Chinese officials involved in it, is a new approach to population that worries less about how many babies are born, and more about what they will be able to do when they grow up."

Read the full article here.