Using primary-school children to improve child-rearing practices in rural Jamaica

Many children in Jamaica suffer from poor development, inadequate dental care and low immunization status. There is a need for low-cost innovative programmes to reach these children. We piloted an approach to teaching primary-school children basic child health and development concepts with the aim of improving their knowledge and practices and those of their guardians. The programme was conducted with 89 children from three grade levels in a remote rural school. The topic was taught throughout the school year with an action-oriented curriculum. Evaluation showed improvement in school children's knowledge and practices and guardians' knowledge. This approach is seen to be a feasible, low cost way of improving the quality of future child care.