Category: News

My name is Ahmad Saeed and I am working as a trainer in mental health. I am actively involved in the Positive Parenting Project of the International Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

As part of the Positive Parenting Project, I had a chance to participate in the ICDP training, which was very useful and practical. Topics that we discussed in the training were interesting. I could see the impact of this training in my daily life; it brought about significant improvements in my relationship with my two children, both under five years old.

Here is an example of the way ICDP affected me:

After a busy day, I went home with the intention of taking a good rest, but when I got home, my six-year-old child Erfan, was crying and screaming. I was hoping to find some peace, but instead I was faced with this unsettling situation. I tried to calm my son, but the more I tried, the more he seemed to cry and scream.

I found this situation very stressful. I could feel myself becoming very anxious and angry. For a few moments, I considered using violence, but the thought of my work the goal of which is to reduce violence against children, stopped me. I thought about the ICDP training and asked myself what does my child need from me now, what should I do to help. This helped me to overcame my anger and I turned to my son and started to talk to him calmly, asking his what was the problem. I listened carefully to what my son had to say. His whole face was wet with tears and his body was shaking. I hugged hin gently and placed his head on my shoulder. I then began caressing his head.

In an upset voice, he explained that he was really hungry but there was nothing to eat as the food was not yet ready. I reassured him: “That is not a big problem sweetheart, come with me to the kitchen – you and I can quickly make something delicious to eat”. While preparing the food, I was talking to him in a soothing manner. My son soon calmed down completely and after he had his food, we started to talk and play together.

I realized the power of the ICDP sensitive approach. I could see how important it is to be patient with children, how talking and playing together with children produces shared closeness; and how effective attentive listening and dialogue is in overcoming problems.  I realized that I had learned a new skill – later in several other stressful situations, it helped me handle the problems in an appropriate way.

Since then, I have realized that even some small changes in behaviour can improve adult-child relationship, and that the effectiveness depends on our ability to apply them at the right time.

A big thanks to the ICDP team for their wonderful training, which had a positive impact on me and others in my community.

In 2021, the COVID – 19 restrictions posed many challenges, during the third year of ICDP implementation in the country. Lockdowns disrupted mobility in the field. A feeling of anxiety spread among people, including staff, who became fearful about being contaminated by the virus. On top of that, the typhoon Rai affected many parts of the Visayas region. But these challenges also revealed the effectiveness, relevance, appropriateness, scalability and sustainability of the parenting programme. The structures and mechanisms established by the parenting programme on the ground were effective – people did it.

Read the full report.

ICDP was making good progress in Bangladesh in 2021.

In 2021 many activities were disrupted due to COVID-19, but despite this the ICDP team managed to organize and carry out training of three groups of facilitators. As a result, 209 caregivers and 425 children w.ere reached by the ICDP courses.

Click here to read their 2021 report.

Save the Children have produced a new study, and this time the study looked at the impact of ICDP on children. Many thanks to Disa Sjoblom who has been the driving force behind this work and also the whole team in Save the Children Nepal that has been rolling out the ICDP programme as part of their parenting package. Their excellent work is reflected in the evaluation results:

Click here to read the study.

The highlights are:

• Parents/ caregiver became more engaged with their children
• Maltreatment by caregivers reduced
• Children’s development across all early childhood domains improved, i.e. social, emotional, cognitive, language and motor development (age of children 0-5)
• There were improvements in nutrition practices but the time was probably too short to have significant impact on nutritional outcomes 
• Children from smaller families and boys had higher development gains (which means that we must pay more attention to gender inequalities in parenting and ensure that parents engage with all children) 
• Children who had more frequent exposure to psychological aggression and neglect by parents/ caregivers had smaller development gains

During the autumn months in 2021, an ICDP sensitization project took place at the Amanecer International Centre, near the city of Armenia in Colombia.

The project was attended by vulnerable young people, mostly adolescent mothers who were also part of a programme called “Daughers of Peace” of the GHFP Foundation. The participants included 19 young people with ages between 18 and 25 years old. Some of them already had children. Seven participants came with children who attended the nursery at the Amanecer Centre during the period the project lasted, whereas the children of three other participants were not present; two of the participants were in the state of pregnancy. The ICDP trainers, Carmen Lucia Andrade and Blanca Cecilia Garcia, explained about the ICDP process:

We noted that working on the concepts of parenting and exploring local cultural practices in group, gradually strengthened the young participants’ self-esteem, by recognizing the importance of their role as mothers and identifying what good childcaring means. They saw the importance of leaving good memories for their children and not repeating difficult processes they had themselves experienced when they were growing up, that there is no room for abuse and violent behavior. They explored how we relate to children in our culture and explored and evaluated the typical concepts and prejudices.  We enhanced positive aspects of local child rearing culture through dances, telling stories and playing games, which made the participants understand their value in parenting. Reliving good memories of their childhood made them understand their own children better. Daily interaction was valued for the creation of affective bonds through good treatment of children in everyday situations. Gradually the participants became aware and understood why it is necessary to make positive changes in relation to their children. They began to show their ability to express themselves affectively with their children and made efforts to increase their moments of closeness with them. They discovered that they must participate and join their children’s experiences, follow them and guide them in the discovery of the world, with patience, attention, dedication and enthusiasm; that they can help the development of intelligence in their children. They became determined to completely avoid hitting children and to stop screaming at them, realizing the damage such actions cause to the physical, emotional and mental development of children. They explored, practiced and demonstrated their ability to regulate their children’s actions in a positive way. The ICDP process guided them to conclude that it is not difficult to have good dialogues and communication in their daily interactive moments with their children and that with a little bit of awareness and patience a great deal can be achieved towards a happy and harmonious relationship. Participants were motivated to sustain and enrich learning. The self-assessment scale using the 8 ICDP guidelines as criteria for self-evaluation was explained and the interaction profile of some participants was made. With one of the mothers, we illustrated in depth how one can make one’s own interaction profile and then based on it we discussed how to make a strategy for future improvement of those aspects that had a low rating in the interaction profile. We asked participants to answer a few questions as a general evaluation at the end of the course, which confirmed that our work had a positive impact on this group.

Click here for full report with participants’ evaluations.

Participation in parental guidance groups leads to increased coping in parenting and an improved relationship between parents and children, according to a new study of the ICDP in Norway conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

Design: RCT study, the families who participated in the study were randomly drawn to be either in the intervention or control group

Read the study: Efficacy evaluation of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP)

Parental guidance is a widespread measure – offered to parents who experience challenges related to having children, and preventive to parents who do not experience this type of difficulties. In Norway, many parents take advantage of the offer in the municipality in which they live.

From 2017-2021, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has conducted a study of the most widespread public parental guidance programme, the International Child Development Programme (ICDP). The aim of the study was to find out what effect the program has in Norway, and to investigate whether the ICDP can contribute to a positive change in the role of parents, strengthen the relationship between parents and children, and improve children’s well-being.

The study looked at the “standard version of the ICDP,” which targets the entire population. The ICDP is also offered to specific groups, which this study has not investigated.

The study shows that ICDP guidance has a positive effect on parents and the relationship between parents and children. The study found that parents feel safer in parenting after participating in the ICDP programme.

“The parents report that they feel closer to their child, experience less conflicts about child rearing in the relationship, and have a more supportive parenting style after completing ICDP guidance, compared to the control group that was not part of the programme,” says project adviser Eia Elena Skjønsberg.

Illustration photo: colourbox.com.

Update by Pamela Antila, ICDP Finland chair:

ICDP Finland has been active for ten years now, year 2021 being its tenth year in operation. Much as during 2020, the COVID pandemic and the resulting restrictions have impacted our activities greatly.

The association has not been able to offer any trainings. Organizations around the country have also had trainings and groups largely on pause.

However, ICDP Finland has now been able to focus on its membership activities. We have 55 registered members and starting from September we have arranged a virtual ICDP morning coffee for members once a month.

ICDP Finland has also taken part in ICDP Norden (Nordic) board meetings and will continue the collaboration with the other Nordic countries.

The association has a registered and active website www.icdp.fi and is also active on social media, mainly Facebook and Instagram.

We hope to return to normal operation during 2022, with physical trainings and a 10-year anniversary with all ICDP trained people in Finland.

The ICDP Finland association will continue to work on introducing and spreading ICDP in Finland in both official language (Finnish and Swedish) as well as developing the programme in Finland.