In low- and middle-income countries,approximately 250 million children fail to reach their developmental potential.One way to help these children thrive is by supporting their parents and caregivers to engage in responsive caregiving,an important component ofNurturing Care, anda practice thathas been proven tosupport children’s socioemotionaland cognitivedevelopment.
What are responsive interactions for learning?
A responsive caregiver is someone who regularly engages children inResponsiveInteractions forLearning(RIFL)—interactions thatare characterized by two key elements: sensitivity and stimulation. Sensitivity means being aware of how children feel (e.g., tired, upset, or hungry) and responding in an empathetic way that supports them to get their needs met.Stimulation, on the other hand,is about recognizing what children are interested in and capable of at any given moment and responding with the right level of support and challenge to help them learn new words, concepts, skills, etc.Whencaregivers are sensitive and stimulating,childrenfeel safe, secure, and interested inwhat isgoing onaround them,which in turnmaximizestheirlearning.
How to measureresponsive caregivingefficiently
Responsive caregivingcannotbe measuredaccuratelyusingself-reportsbecausecaregivers can only report on responses to signals that they notice and not those they miss or misinterpret.Caregivers desire to appear to be good caregivers is another reason that self-reports are not a good source of information in this area.As a result, to identify how responsive any caregiver is,theyhave tobe observed interacting with their child (observational assessment). While many observational assessments are time and labor-intensive, a recently developedinstrument—the Responsive Interactions for Learning (RIFL) measure—condenses this process into just eight minutesfor efficient use at a population level.
Very few resources are required to administer this measure.Caregiversplay a challengingcooperative game with their childforfive-minutes. This might includesorting shapes, or building a Lego structure, as developmentally appropriate.Raters watch video-recordings of these interactions andscorecaregiverson 11 itemsusing a five-point Likert scale(scoring requires approximately three minutes per video).The11 items assessthe extent to which acaregiveridentifies and respondsto the feelings and thoughts of the child with whom they are interacting.This includesproviding meaningful verbal/nonverbal inputs to the child, thinking about what the child knows and understands, andpromoting reciprocity.A mean of the 11 items is calculated, yielding a composite score ofresponsivitythat can range from 1 to 5.
The RIFL measurewas originallyvalidated for use withCanadian samplesofmothers,fathers,older siblings, andearly childhood educatorsinteracting with youngchildren.Recently,theRIFL parenting measurehasbeen successfully adapted and tested in LMICs, includingBrazilandPeru, with additional ongoingworkin China. Trainingon how to use this measure is available for freein English, Portuguese, and Spanishthrough a password-protected, open-source online asynchronous course offeredatthe University of Toronto.This training can becompleted in less than eight hours.An educator version of this measure is also available.
The RIFL evidence-based online professional development course
Although responsive caregivingisoneimportant component ofNurturing Care,many early childhood professionals do not knowhow to coach it. To address this gap, with support from theBernard van Leer Foundation, we designed an online professional development course that focuses on responsive interactions.
TheRIFLcourse aims to develop practitioners´ understanding of responsive interactions and increase their ability to coach these interactions with caregivers. The courseuses(i) online lectures, (ii)observation of videos of responsiveinteractions, (iii) peer discussion, and (iv)real-lifepracticeto support adult learning.
To evaluate the effectiveness of this course, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in Brazil with 181staff intheCriançaFelizProgram.All staff who took the course were very satisfied with the content and mode of delivery and there was nodropoutfrom the program. Compared to participants in the control group, they were also more knowledgeable about responsivity and its importance for children’s socioemotional and cognitive development, better able to identify responsive parental behaviors in videotaped interactions, and suggested more effective strategies for coaching parents on responsivity and monitoring their progress.
From this trial we can conclude that online professional development programs provide a low-cost, scalable option for strengthening home-visitors’ knowledge and intended coaching practices, which could maximize the impact of home-visiting programs, particularly regarding parental responsivity, and in turn, child outcomes.
The Responsive Interactions for Learning online course is available in Portuguese, Spanish, and English. If you want to learnmore, orare interested in using this courseor the RIFL instruments, please contact us: [email protected]