The Prescription to Play (P2P) Project
Many children, especially the most disadvantaged, miss out on playful interactions when caregivers lack the skills and motivation to play. Despite evidence from pilot projects, few playful parenting interventions have been scaled. The vision of the Prescription to Play’s (P2P) Project is to improve young children’s play ecology with equity, by offering an intensity of services commensurate with the level of need. Bhutan is where the P2P interventions are being implemented by Save the Children with the support of The LEGO Foundation. ARNEC is an implementing partner for regional advocacy in support of playful parenting.
What P2P intends to do in Bhutan
P2P will institutionalize play in Bhutan’s health system and improve the motivation, capability and support families need to raise children in playful homes.
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At the health system level, playful parenting will be integrated in the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI) program and the pre-service training for health assistants (HAs).
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At the community level, P2P will initiate a mass media campaign and community mobilisation activities to generate awareness, demand and support for playful parenting, engage female and male community champions, including village health workers, and address beliefs and barriers related to masculinity, caregiving, early childhood and misconceptions about play.
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At the household level, P2P will aim to engage influential household members, including fathers and grandparents through group and counselling beneficiaries.
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At the regional level, ARNEC will be a key partner to generate awareness among Asia-Pacific countries/governments, disseminate learnings from this project and build capacity to advocate for playful parenting in the region.
Role of ARNEC in P2P
ARNEC will be responsible for the regional knowledge generation and advocacy efforts on playful parenting, as well as the dissemination of P2P knowledge products in relevant fora and networks to ensure that P2P benefits from and is able to contribute to the collective knowledge on playful parenting interventions.
ARNEC’s activities will focus on advancing playful parenting and nurturing care in the region. ARNEC will be the gateway between P2P and the region by disseminating the P2P approach and tools to scale and sustain playful parenting.
The network will bolster existing playful parenting programs for children under three by mapping them, highlighting notable practices and linking research experts with pilot programs to generate evidence. ARNEC will also advocate for countries to take on playful parenting by conducting a regional campaign, identifying countries with potential for scale-up, creating policy briefs and bringing playful parenting to the forefront of ARNEC conferences and other fora.