Table 1 Topics of parent training sessions based on the Care for Child Development (CCD) manual

Session 1

During the third trimester of pregnancy

Activities to promote playing:

• Provide ways for the child to see, hear, move arms and legs freely, and touch the parents.

• Describe ways to gently soothe, stroke, and hold the child.

• Give the child skin-to-skin contact

Activities to promote communicating:

• Look into the baby’s eyes and talk to the baby, especially during breastfeeding.

Session 2

2 week up to 6 weeks

Activities to promote playing:

• Provide ways for the child to see, hear, feel, move freely, and touch the parents.

• Provide slowly moving colorful things for the child to see and reach for (sample toys: shaker rattle, big ring on a string).

Activities to promote communicating:

• Smile and laugh with the child.

• Talk to the child. Get a conversation going by copying the child’s sounds or gestures.

Session 3

2 months up to 6 months

Activities to promote playing:

• Give the child clean, safe household things to handle, bang, and drop (sample toys: containers with lids, metal pot, and spoon).

Activities to promote communicating:

• Respond to the child’s sounds and interests.

• Call the child’s name, and see the child respond

Session 4

6 months up to 9 months

Activities to promote playing:

• Hide the child’s favorite toy under a cloth or box. See if the child can find it.

• Play peek-a-boo.

Activities to promote communicating:

• Tell the child the names of things and people.

• Show the child how to say things with hands, like “bye bye (sample toy: doll with face).

Session 5

9 months up to 1 year

Activities to promote playing:

• Give the child things to stack up, and to put into containers and take out (sample toys: Nesting and stacking objects, containers and clothes clips).

Activities to promote communicating:

• Ask the child simple questions.

• Respond to the child’s attempts to talk.

• Show and talk about nature, pictures, and things.