RESEARCH PROJECTS UNDER EARLY YEARS
Pratham’s Early Years program works towards the holistic development of children in the age group of 0-8 years through the implementation of play-based pedagogy, using local resources, low-cost and appropriate material, and involving caregivers, especially mothers. Below are a few ongoing research projects.
Birth to 3 years
In 2013, Pratham participated in a research project as the implementation partner to test the impact of an early stimulation program (following the Reach Up and Learn Curriculum) aimed at building the physical, language, cognitive, and socio-emotional abilities of children in the birth to 3 years age group by engaging mothers of children. After the project showed positive results, Pratham has been piloting a modified version of the curriculum in its communities with the aim of taking the program to scale. As of 2024, Pratham has implemented the birth-to-3 project in over 1,800 communities across four states and aims to take it to even greater scale in the coming years.
Math Games for Pre-primary and Grade 1
Math Games is an innovative math curriculum which aims to develop children’s intuitive concepts of number and geometry. It is informed by decades of research on how babies and young children learn and develop, led by Elizabeth Spelke, one of the world’s top cognitive psychologists. The games have been rigorously tested by researchers and J-PAL and have been shown to build children’s abilities in numbers and geometry in the long term. Since 2020, Pratham has been working with J-PAL to create a modified and lighter version of the games which can be scaled across India, both within Pratham programs and within the government education system.
Gender in Early Years
In 2019, Pratham began developing a gender-responsive pedagogy for its preschool programs through a research project supported by Echidna Giving. After two years of extensive research in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, Pratham created a gender responsive framework through which content could be curated and created. In 2022, on the basis of this framework, story books for children were curated and gender-responsive digital games were created. They are currently in use in Anganwadis and with Mothers’ Groups in specific areas of Delhi and Patna.
