Keeping early childhood development gains going in rural Kenya
Achieving Sustained Early Child Development Impacts at Scale: a Kenyan RCT
This project compares low-cost phone support and community health worker group programs to help young children in rural Kenya maintain early learning, language, and social skills.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Southern California NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Los Angeles, UNITED STATES) |
| Project ID | NIH-11135351 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If you are a caregiver in rural Kenya, researchers are comparing cheaper delivery methods to keep early childhood gains going after an initial program ends. They will run a cluster-randomized trial where some villages receive group sessions led by community health workers and others receive mobile phone–based support, then follow children over time. Child thinking, language, and social-emotional skills plus parenting practices will be measured, and costs will be compared to see which approach could be scaled up. The goal is a low-cost, sustainable program that rural families can realistically access long-term.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants are caregivers and their young children (especially under age five) living in the rural Kenyan communities enrolled in the trial and willing to attend sessions or receive mobile messages.
Not a fit: Families living outside the study communities, those without any mobile phone access, or older children beyond the target age range are unlikely to benefit from enrolling in this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, families could access a low-cost, scalable way (phone support or community health worker groups) to sustain children's cognitive, language, and socioemotional development over time.
How similar studies have performed: Previous group-based programs delivered by community health workers have shown short-term improvements in child development, but phone-based mHealth approaches for ECD in low-resource settings have not been rigorously tested at scale.
Where this research is happening
Los Angeles, UNITED STATES
- University of Southern California — Los Angeles, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Lopez Garcia, Italo — University of Southern California
- Study coordinator: Lopez Garcia, Italo
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.