Harsh childrearing practices such as corporal punishment, widespread in the Caribbean, are not conducive to optimal neurodevelopment. Violence negatively impacts healthy brain development during the first 1,000 days of life and beyond. Cultural norms that condone and encourage violence influence adult perceptions of child behavior and shape childrearing. Many studies demonstrate adverse effects of violent punishment. Young children, whose brains undergo rapid growth, are most at risk. Imaging studies show reduced gray matter in persons exposed to harsh punishment as children. [1] Implications of the effects on brain development are dire; educational and economic consequences in a globally competitive world are of great concern.

To support child development in the Caribbean, a Conscious Discipline ‘meme’ will  be disseminated to show  corporal punishment as counterproductive, while working with locally-trusted paraprofessionals to train new and expecting parents on positive parenting practices.

Funders

• Grand Challenges Canada

Key Partners

• George’s University (Grenada)
• Roving Caregivers Programme, Ministry of Social Development (Grenada)

Key Drivers

Focus on capacity building by targetting new and expecting parents

Existing Roving Caregiver (RC) Program

A Roving Caregiver program, employing over 90 full time enrichment paraprofessional therapists, already exists in Grenada. The Rovers travel to remote locations to provide enrichment activities for children, but provide little parent support. The project team will work with the RC program to identify paraprofessionals from the villages, relying on their understanding and experience of working with these communities.

Community Conscious Discipline Meme

Creative nature of creating and disseminating a community Conscious Discipline “meme” promotes natural sustainability as it focuses on changing attitude towards punishments from the ground up (i.e. at level of community) rather than the top down ( i.e. laws, professional oversight, enforcement). This part of the program anticipates creating top-down change by changing public opinion

Symbol of Nation-Wide Effort

Community Conscious Discipline Paraprofessionals (CCDP) and their respective villages will receive support from mobile unit team which is anticipated to become a symbol of a nation-wide effort to save brains further ensuring successful implementation of the innovation.

Sustainability Through CCDP Training

Training and supporting CCDP will promote sustainability as these individuals will continue to impart their knowledge even after the grant is completed.

Challenges

Training of Conscious Discipline Paraprofessionals

Ensuring that at least 70 Conscious Discipline Paraprofessionals were trained and met fidelity criteria to be able to teach Conscious Discipline in the community

Recruiting and Maintaining Target Number of Parents

Recruiting enough parents with infants (2,500) and keeping the target number (1,750) involved in the Conscious Discipline training to the end of the study

To determine the effectiveness of the program, targeted outcomes will be compared across the CD-trained parents and caregivers to the wait-list control group.

Out comes that will be measured:

Conscious Discipline Paraprofessionals Knowledge and Uptake – whether or not they can adopt and disseminate the model as measured by quantitative, observable fidelity instruments.

Parent Knowledge and Uptake – will measure change in knowledge, attitude, behaviors, and child-parent interactions through quantitative self-report and observable fidelity instruments.

Children – whether or not children exposed to the intervention show improved cognitive, emotional, and language development for at least 10 months compared to children in a wait list control group, measured by quantitative, observable instruments.

2,500 parents and their infants are expected to be reached through the program, with at least 1,750 completing at least 10 months of regular training sessions. At least 70 Community Conscious Discipline Paraprofessionals will be trained and certified to provide Conscious Discipline training to parents.

Cost

• $250,000 (CAD) – total direct costs to implement the program.
• $100 (CAD) per parent reached (2,500 parents and their infants).
• $142.86 CDN per parent who completes at least 10 months of training (1,750 target number).

1. Tomoda, A. M., Suzuki, H., Rabi, K., Yi-Shin, S., Polari, A., & Teicher, M. H. (2009). Reduced prefrontal cortical gray matter volume in young adults exposed to harsh corporal punishment. Neuroimage; 47(2), T66-T71.
2. Rao, H., Betancourt, L., Giannetta, J. M., Brodsky, N. L., Korczykowski, M., Avants, B. B., Gee, J. C. et al. (2010). Early parental care is important for hippocampal maturation: Evidence from brain morphology in humans. Neuroimage, 49, 1144-1150.