Dr Marta Rubio-Codina

Globally, preschool enrollment has surged, but its quality is often poor. We evaluate strategies to improve quality of public preschools in Colombia.

In this paper, we assess a cluster-RCT intervention to enhance child stimulation in Colombia's FAMI parenting program.

In an open-label cluster-randomized control trial, we compared the effectiveness of weekly home visits and weekly mother-child group sessions.

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disavantaged children aged 12 to 24 months at baseline.

Using a cluster randomised controlled trial, we evaluated a psychosocial stimulation intervention, comprising weekly home visits for 18 months, in urban slums of Cuttack, Odisha, India.

Global access to preschool has increased dramatically yet preschool quality is often poor.

Global access to preschool has increased dramatically yet preschool quality is often poor. We use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate two approaches to improving the quality of Colombian preschools.

Many children in developing countries grow up in unstimulating environments, leading to deficiencies in early years’ developmental outcomes, particularly cognition and language. Interventions to improve parenting in the first 3 years of life have a clear impact on these outcomes, but the sustainability of effects is mixed, particularly for scalable interventions. There is little evidence of the effect of following-up an early life intervention with another one immediately afterwards. The objective of this study is to help fill this gap.

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to signicant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children aged 12 to 24 months at baseline.

Poor early childhood development (ECD) in low- and middle-income countries is a major concern. There are calls to universalise access to ECD interventions through integrating them into existing government services but little evidence on the medium- or long-term effects of such scalable models.

We examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to signicant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children aged 12 to 24 months at baseline. We estimate the determinants of material and time investments in these children and evaluate the im- pact of the treatment on such investments. We then estimate the production functions for cognitive and socio-emotional skills. The eects of the program can be explained by increases in parental investments, which have strong eects on outcomes and are complementary to both maternal skills and child's baseline skills.

Why is multiple micronutrient powder ineffective at reducing anaemia among 12–24 month olds in Colombia? Evidence from a randomised controlled trial

In low- and middle-income countries (LIMCs), measuring early childhood development (ECD) with standard tests in large scale surveys and evaluations of interventions is difficult and expensive. Multi-dimensional screeners and single-domain tests (‘short tests’) are frequently used as alternatives. However, their validity in these circumstances is unknown. We examined the feasibility, reliability, and concurrent validity of three multi-dimensional screeners (Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ-3), Denver Developmental Screening Test (Denver-II), Battelle Developmental Inventory screener (BDI-2)) and two single-domain tests (MacArthur-Bates Short-Forms (SFI and SFII), WHO Motor Milestones (WHO-Motor)) in 1,311 children 6–42 months in Bogota, Colombia.

Mediating pathways in the socio-economic gradient of child development: Evidence from children 6–42 months in Bogota

Early childhood development in the Slums of Cuttack , Odisha, India Baseline report

The socio-economic gradient of child development: cross-sectional evidence from children 6-42 months in Bogota

The authors examine the channels through which a randomized early childhood intervention in Colombia led to significant gains in cognitive and socio-emotional skills among a sample of disadvantaged children.