Providing Services for Children With Developmental Difficulties, Delay or Disability — Early Diagnosis and Interventions at the Community Level

Abstract

This paper describes two programs using the recommended tiered approach — World Health Organization’s (WHO) Nurturing Care Framework (NCF), viz., Early Childhood Champions (ECC) program and Child Development Aide (CDA) program delivered by Ummeed Child Development Center, a non-governmental organization in Mumbai. The ECC program builds capacity in community health workers (CHWs) employed by community based organizations in urban, semi-urban and rural areas to deliver the responsive caregiving and early learning components of WHO-NCF framework to all children (universal services) and those with or at risk for disabilities (targeted and indicated services). The CDA program trains CHWs to become disability workers in communities where rehabilitation services are scarce or nonexistent. ECC and CDA programs integrate ECD services into the existing work of established CHWs in the communities and have preliminary evidence of reach, effectiveness and acceptability. Till date, the 145 CHWs trained by the ECC program have reached 7073 children, of whom 835 (7.4%) have been identified with developmental delays. The ECC program meets the well-recognized need for training packages on responsive caregiving and early learning components of WHO NCF framework.