As part of the Play to Learn initiative, with funding from the LEGO foundation, BRAC and Sesame Workshop designed a 6-month fathers’ engagement component to be added to an existing parenting intervention for mothers. The program was developed for fathers of children aged 0-3 in the Rohingya camps and surrounding host communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and focuses on mental health, responsive caregiving, and engagement with family. As part of an impact evaluation of the intervention1, we at Global TIES, New York University, developed an instrument to measure the quality of the intervention delivery.

This brief discusses the importance of measuring quality, the process of developing and implementing this quality instrument, and the preliminary analysis of data collected using it. In addition to informing the impact evaluation, a broader goal of this work is to contribute to the emerging knowledge on measuring program quality and fidelity, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMIC) and emergency contexts, and better understand “how” and “why” parenting programs in these contexts do or do not work.

This study is a causal impact evaluation of Watch, Play, Learn (WPL), a program by Sesame Workshop that consists of videos that aim to bring playful early learning opportunities to children, especially those affected by conflict and crisis, via mobile phones. This study focused on the effects of WPL math and social-emotional skills content delivered to Venezuelan migrants and Colombian children living in communities in Colombia where families and children face challenges in accessing essential services, including early education. Implementation was led by the Colombia office of Innovations for Poverty Action.

This study is a causal impact evaluation of Watch, Play, Learn (WPL), a program by Sesame Workshop that consists of videos that aim to bring playful early learning opportunities to children, especially those affected by conflict and crisis, via mobile phones. This study focused on the effects of WPL math and social-emotional skills content delivered to Venezuelan migrants and Colombian children living in communities in Colombia where families and children face challenges in accessing essential services, including early education. Implementation was led by the Colombia office of Innovations for Poverty Action.

Little is known about parents' book-sharing styles in indigenous communities undergoing social and cultural change. This study investigated Guatemalan Mayan parents' book-sharing styles and their relation to parents' schooling experience and children's narrative contributions. Thirty parents and their first-grade children (ages 7–9) were audiotaped sharing a worded picture book. Most parents either adopted the role of the sole narrator (40%) or shared the role of the narrator with their children (40%); other parents focused on teaching literacy skills (20%). Guatemalan Mayan parents with greater schooling experience were more likely to adopt the sole-narrator style than other styles. Children whose parents adopted the sole-narrator style contributed significantly less to the story (both in amount and type of new information provided) than children whose parents adopted other styles. Implications for family literacy programs working with Guatemalan Mayan and other indigenous communities are discussed.