Practitioners/Teachers 

In Richter, L., et al. (2012). Diagnostic review of early childhood development. Pretoria: Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation & Inter-Departmental Steering Committee on Early Childhood Development 

The following are key points addressed in the paper: Parenting is the most important influence on the health and development of young children; Positive parenting is facilitated by economic and social security, social support, harmonious relationships with partners, and access to services to deal with challenges; Nearly two thirds of young children in South Africa live only with their mother, and little is known about support from fathers; Parenting can be promoted through media programmes, group programmes working out of health and educational facilities, and home visiting; Norms, standards and regulations under the Children's Act do not adequately capture the range of home- and community-based programmes supporting parents so that these can be resourced and monitored; The NELDS cuts across settings but there are aspects that may not be covered in all programmes supporting parenting, depending on the specific focus of programmes; Home visiting and other forms of parenting support can reach very vulnerable families and link them to holistic ECD services; However, there are no funding norms for home- and community-based programmes, and this is challenging for budgeting and roll out; Many community development workers responsible to different departments are in touch with primary carers of young children in the course of their work but this opportunity has not been used to promote and support parenting, to link young children to services and to deliver key messages to promote the development and health of very young children. 

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