How Policy Affects Early Childhood Care and Development.
How Policy Affects Early Childhood Care and Development.
How Policy Affects Early Childhood Care and Development.
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The programme is a community-based intervention, capitalizing upon women's networks through<br />
the use of group discussion sessions. Especially in sociocultural contexts where close-knit family<br />
<strong>and</strong> community ties exist, as in Turkey <strong>and</strong> many parts of the developing world, it makes sense<br />
for an enrichment programme to build on these ties as support mechanisms. (Kagitcibasi 1988)<br />
These mechanisms would be expected to continue to provide support to the women after the<br />
completion of the programme.<br />
The Turkish <strong>Early</strong> Enrichment Project<br />
The origins of the Mother-Child Education Programme lie in the Turkish <strong>Early</strong> Enrichment<br />
Project, a research project conducted between 1982 <strong>and</strong> 1986 by Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Diane<br />
Sunar <strong>and</strong> Sevda Bekman of Bogazici University. (Kagitcibasi, Sunar & Bekman 1988) The<br />
project, involving early childhood enrichment <strong>and</strong> mother training in low income areas of<br />
Istanbul, set out to assess the impact of an optimal combination of educational preschool care<br />
<strong>and</strong> home intervention on the overall development of socioeconomically disadvantaged urban<br />
children. Both centre-based <strong>and</strong> home-based enrichment were studied, separately <strong>and</strong> in<br />
combination.<br />
The study was conducted in five low-income shantytown areas of Istanbul where the majority of<br />
the population were blue-collar workers or involved in the marginal economy. The population<br />
was mostly of rural origins, having migrated to the city in search of employment. The main reason<br />
for the choice of these areas was the existence of factories employing over 300 women <strong>and</strong> thus<br />
required by law to provide a child care unit. Six daycare centres catering to low-income children<br />
were chosen. The children were three <strong>and</strong> five years of age. Of the sample, one third of the<br />
children were enrolled in educational nursery schools, one third in custodial care centres <strong>and</strong> the<br />
other third in home care with no preschool education. Some of the children in each group were<br />
r<strong>and</strong>omly selected <strong>and</strong> given a home intervention in the form of a Mother Training Programme.<br />
Mother training had two elements: a programme to foster social <strong>and</strong> personality development of<br />
the child <strong>and</strong> a programme to foster the cognitive development of the child. The former was<br />
addressed through group discussions on topics designed to increase the mother's sensitivity to the<br />
child's social <strong>and</strong> emotional needs <strong>and</strong> to help her to foster the child's social <strong>and</strong> personality<br />
growth. The programme to foster cognitive development was a Turkish translation <strong>and</strong><br />
adaptation of HIPPY (Home Intervention Programme for Preschool Youngsters) developed by<br />
the Research Institute of Innovation in Education at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. (Lombard<br />
1981) As a home-based enrichment approach, the programme focused on three main areas of<br />
cognitive development (language, sensory <strong>and</strong> perceptual discrimination skills <strong>and</strong> problemsolving)<br />
with materials provided for educational activities in each of these areas.<br />
In the second <strong>and</strong> third years of the project, the Mother Training Programme consisted of<br />
biweekly home visits <strong>and</strong> group meetings that were held on alternate weeks. The programme to<br />
foster social <strong>and</strong> personality development of the child took place in the fortnightly group<br />
meetings through guided group discussions. The topics in the first year were based on children's<br />
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