Scaling a Technology-based Early Childhood Care Intervention

scaling a technology-based early childhood care despite a substantial body of rigorous evidence on the positive long-term effects of early childhood stimulation (ecs) interventions on cognitive, educational, and life outcomes, the costs and labor-intensive nature of these programs have inhibited their wide scale uptake. to promote and reduce the cost of early childhood stimulation, a peruvian ngo developed the volar initiative, including digital solutions to train caregivers. adapting content from reach up and learn, a proven but resource-intense early childhood program, volar includes a smartphone app with videos, activities, audio, images, and text; nudges via audio and text messages to encourage engagement with the app; and parent learning groups. directly delivering content to parents through an app rather than through in-home visits reduces the annual cost of this well-validated program from $368 to $149 per child year. at scale, volar could be delivered for as little as $44 per child. with support from development innovation ventures, partners will work to provide digital solutions through 160 urban and suburban daycare centers, reaching 1,600 households.patners will also conduct a randomized controlled trial that compares the effects of daycare alone (control) with daycare plus the volar app (treatment group 1) and with daycare plus the app and parent learning groups (treatment group 2) on childrens cognitive and non-cognitive development. this study is designed to fill a key evidence gap in the ecs research space and has the potential to directly inform future policy design of ecs programs at scale, both within and beyond peru.