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Informing Mothers about the Benefits of Conversing with Infants: Experimental Evidence from Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Pascaline Dupas
  • Camille Falezan
  • Seema Jayachandran
  • Mark P. Walsh

Abstract

Despite the well-established importance of verbal engagement for infant language and cognitive development, many parents in low-income contexts do not converse with their infants regularly. We report on a randomized field experiment evaluating a low-cost intervention that aims to raise verbal engagement with infants by showing recent or expectant mothers a 3-minute informational video and giving them a themed wall calendar. Six to eight months later, mothers selected for the intervention report greater belief in the benefits of verbally engaging with infants, more frequent parent-infant conversations, and that their infants have more advanced language and cognitive skills. We measure positive but noisy effects on parental verbal inputs in a day-long recording and on surveyor-observed infant cognitive skills. The intervention could be delivered to expectant mothers through existing health clinics at very low marginal cost so could be a highly cost-effective early childhood development policy in low-income contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascaline Dupas & Camille Falezan & Seema Jayachandran & Mark P. Walsh, 2023. "Informing Mothers about the Benefits of Conversing with Infants: Experimental Evidence from Ghana," NBER Working Papers 31264, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31264
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    Cited by:

    1. Madeline Duhon & Lia Fernald & Joan Hamory & Edward Miguel & Eric Ochieng & Michael W. Walker, 2024. "Intergenerational Human Capital Impacts and Complementarities in Kenya," NBER Working Papers 32617, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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