Blog

This case study explores the emergency parenting support response in Ukraine, providing results and impact, key parties and the story.

The Global Initiative to Support Parents (GISP) is excited to launch its new global platform which provides research and evidence-based practices for parent and caregiver support, connects the global parenting support community and advocates for sustainable investment in universal access to parenting and caregiving support interventions.

A lot has changed since the onset of COVID-19, when the world transformed, along with the roles of parents and caregivers. The Playful Parenting Community, a consortium of partners implementing and researching playful parenting programs internationally convened by the LEGO Foundation, has also changed. With a mission to bring programs to scale, the distinct pathways for each program have evolved alongside the shifting operational realities and national priorities.

On the first day of UNESCO’s 2022 World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education, ECDAN and its partners in the Global Initiative to Support Parents (GISP)—UNICEF, WHO, Parenting for Lifelong Health at the University of Oxford, and the End Violence Partnership—hosted a session on parenting.

As recognition of the importance of parenting programs and the implementation of these programs accelerates worldwide, so does the body of evidence. But gaps persist in important areas, including a lack of understanding on what it takes to train and support the people delivering parenting programs.

In a time when COVID-19 has transformed the way we live, work, play, and parent, early childhood development (ECD) programs have been asked to reimagine how they deliver services as well. Now more than ever, parents worldwide need support to tackle the distinct challenges presented by the pandemic and provide their children holistic nurturing care.

Parents are children’s first and most important teachers. Fathers in particular, have a special role to play in children’s development and wellbeing. A new systematic review of research focused on father- child play and its potential impact on young children’s (age 0-3) development found that fathers’ play, which most frequently focuses on physical play, such as rough and tumble, with their young children can positively contribute to children’s social, emotional and cognitive outcomes.

As children’s first playmate and teachers, parents and caregivers play a very important role in helping their young children develop and thrive. There is growing evidence that children who have healthy emotional relationships with their parents and opportunities for playing and learning in their early years develop strong social, emotional, physical, and cognitive skills that are key to their optimal development.

Parents are children’s first and most important teachers. The care, support, protection, nurturing caregiving and playful interactions between children and their parents is the most critical piece in the developmental puzzle that enables children to thrive and become productive citizens in the world.