Early childhood services are often fragmented across different sectors: the health sector focuses on perinatal care, growth monitoring, or vaccination; early education falls under the responsibility of Ministries of Social Development or Family, and once children enter preschool, responsibility shifts to the education system. This fragmentation is also reflected in how information about children is collected: health, nutrition, and education are usually measured separately. But for several years now, Ecuador has been an exception.
In this blog post, we explain how the country has become a regional reference by advancing comprehensive and regular measurement of early childhood development. We also highlight key indicators that help us better understand the situation of children in Ecuador.
A Survey to Measure Early Childhood Development
Having solid, up-to-date, nationally representative data makes it possible to assess the risk factors children are exposed to, identify protective factors, detect progress and setbacks, and even anticipate who may not reach their full potential. In short, what is not measured cannot be improved, which is why having high-quality information is essential for designing effective public policies.
Ecuador has gone a step further in measuring early childhood: in recent years, the country has incorporated early childhood development and opportunities for play and learning into its national surveys, in addition to traditional health and nutrition indicators.
This effort began in 2018, when an early childhood development module was included for the first time in the National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT 2018–19), which collects information on the population’s health and nutrition conditions.
But the story did not end there. More recently, the National Survey on Child Malnutrition (ENDI), focused on children under five, included a short version of that early childhood development module. Two rounds have already been collected, in 2023 and 2024, and a third is currently underway.
What Information Is Measured About Early Childhood?
With ENSANUT 2018–19 and the first two rounds of ENDI, it is now possible to understand:
- The health and nutrition conditions, such as the prevalence of chronic malnutrition, anemia, or vaccination and health care coverage.
- The socioeconomic context of children and their households and their participation in early childhood services.
- Learning opportunities at home, including the availability of children’s books, the variety of play materials, and the quantity and variety of interactions with adults.
- Behavioral guidance strategies used by caregivers, and whether these involve physical or psychological punishment.
- Language development, as an approximation of children’s overall development.
Measuring language development is particularly innovative: the short forms of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (TVIP) were used. Why these instruments? Both have been internationally validated as predictors of future academic performance, as they help anticipate school achievement and IQ in primary school. All of these instruments were adapted to the Ecuadorian context, carefully piloted, and administered after extensive training of surveyors prior to each round.
What Do the Data Tell Us About Early Childhood in Ecuador?
The results, presented at this event and explored in detail in the report Primera infancia en Ecuador: avances, brechas y oportunidades (Early Childhood in Ecuador: Progress, Gaps, and Opportunities), offer a revealing picture:
- Approximately 1 in 6 children has chronic malnutrition.
- 6 in 10 children do not have children’s books at home.
- 4 in 10 play regularly with their caregivers.
- Only 1 in 3 is free from physical or psychological violence.
- By age 5, the most vulnerable children already show a lag in language development equivalent to 16 months, reflecting structural inequalities that take shape from very early ages.
Ecuador’s experience shows that it is possible to measure early childhood development comprehensively at the population level. Having reliable and representative information not only makes it possible to highlight existing gaps but also to guide the design of evidence-based public policies focused on ensuring that all children have the same opportunities to reach their full potential.
Download the publication to learn more about the indicators, methods, and key findings on the evolution of early childhood in Ecuador in recent years: https://publications.iadb.org/es/primera-infancia-en-ecuador-avances-brechas-y-oportunidades