Background: The bonding process can start to develop as early as the planning of a pregnancy and can affect the relationship between mother and child through childhood. If proper bonding is not established, the child can present symptoms of depression, failure to thrive or delays in social and emotional, language or motor development. Stimulation programs implemented during pregnancy may positively affect the bonding process that act as a protective factor against negative outcomes in childhood, adolescence and adult life, for instance substance abuse, poor social coping skills and academic failure. Objectives: To determine and describe the effectiveness of The Baby Bond comprehensive stimulation program on bonding six weeks post intervention. Method: The researcher employed an experimental, pre-test-post-test randomised control group design in this study. Experimental and control groups randomly received the same pre- and post-test: the Prenatal Attachment Inventory within the third trimester of pregnancy and the Maternal Attachment Inventory six weeks post birth. The Baby Bond sensory stimulation program was added to standard antenatal care for the experimental group and the control group received a general stimulation program and standard antenatal care. The data was analysed with the SPSS program version 22.0 by the Statistical Consultation Services at the North-West University, Potchefstroom campus. SPSS was used to compile descriptive statistics from the experimental and control groups, Mann Whitney test and the effect size. Results: The twelve participants that were included in this study were from a variety of ethnic origins, in stable relationships and their ages ranged from 20-34 years. In the results, no statistical significant changes were found between the two groups with the Mann Whitney test. The pre-intervention variables (mean = 66.45) were not significantly different from the post-intervention measurements (mean = 101.03). A medium practical significant difference was identified between the groups (d=0.52) which can indicate that some changes in bonding did take place when implementing the comprehensive sensory stimulation program: The Baby Bond. Conclusion: The Baby Bond sensory stimulation program did not indicate a significant improved bonding as compared to general antenatal care between the mother and baby at six weeks after birth. However, future research in the optimal time for bonding interventions in larger sample sizes is needed, for more conclusive findings. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Background: The bonding process can start to develop as early as the planning of a pregnancy and can affect the relationship between mother and child through childhood. If proper bonding is not established, the child can present symptoms of depression, failure to thrive or delays in social and emotional, language or motor development. Stimulation programs implemented during pregnancy may positively affect the bonding process that act as a protective factor against negative outcomes in childhood, adolescence and adult life, for instance substance abuse, poor social coping skills and academic failure. Objectives: To determine and describe the effectiveness of The Baby Bond comprehensive stimulation program on bonding six weeks post intervention. Method: The researcher employed an experimental, pre-test-post-test randomised control group design in this study. Experimental and control groups randomly received the same pre- and post-test: the Prenatal Attachment Inventory within the third trimester of pregnancy and the Maternal Attachment Inventory six weeks post birth. The Baby Bond sensory stimulation program was added to standard antenatal care for the experimental group and the control group received a general stimulation program and standard antenatal care. The data was analysed with the SPSS program version 22.0 by the Statistical Consultation Services at the North-West University, Potchefstroom campus. SPSS was used to compile descriptive statistics from the experimental and control groups, Mann Whitney test and the effect size. Results: The twelve participants that were included in this study were from a variety of ethnic origins, in stable relationships and their ages ranged from 20-34 years. In the results, no statistical significant changes were found between the two groups with the Mann Whitney test. The pre-intervention variables (mean = 66.45) were not significantly different from the post-intervention measurements (mean = 101.03). A medium practical significant difference was identified between the groups (d=0.52) which can indicate that some changes in bonding did take place when implementing the comprehensive sensory stimulation program: The Baby Bond. Conclusion: The Baby Bond sensory stimulation program did not indicate a significant improved bonding as compared to general antenatal care between the mother and baby at six weeks after birth. However, future research in the optimal time for bonding interventions in larger sample sizes is needed, for more conclusive findings. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Due to poverty and a lack of stimulation, many children living in Low- and Middle income countries suffer from developmental delay and do not develop to their full potential. Yet, remarkable recovery is often possible given that early interventions are available. The aim of this systematic literature review was to find out what could be done to decrease the gap between the current development and the developmental potential among children aged 0-8 years, living in Low –and Middle income countries. The research questions were the following: What intervention programs are provided by communities in Low- and Middle income counties with the intention of training parents´ to support their children reaching their developmental potential? What are the impacts of the interventions on children’s development, and what are the impacts of the interventions on parents´ knowledge about children`s development? Twelve studies were identified through a database search. After analyzing the data two different types of intervention programs emerged: parenting programs and stimulation programs. The gap between children´s current developmental levels and their developmental potential was not measured in the studies.  However, the intervention programs show to have positive effects on informing parents regarding child development, as well as making positive impacts on children’s cognitive development and social skills. The interventions mainly focus on children under the age of three, while interventions focusing on older children are few and need to be further researched. Simple matters, such as home-made toys and interactive communication with the children, can make a big impact on children’s development, which prepares children for future education.

This diploma work Use of educational stimulation groups program is focused on prevention of children failure in the beginning of school attendance by their participation in stimulation program together with their parents. Aim of the diploma work was to find out whether and how the selected program influenced development of weakend partial areas of children who attended this program and opinions of parents on this program. The diploma work is divided into theoretical and practical part. Theoretical part contains three chapters. First chapter characterizes preschool age and all fields of child 's development. Second chapter focuses on particularity of preschool education, legislation, binding documents, educational influence of the family, clarifies terms of school maturity and readiness and introduces some of the stimulation programs. Third chapter is theoretical solution of the stimulation program examined in the practical part, introduces individual areas important for successful start at school and practical activities developing weakend partial areas of the children. There are aims and survey used methods described in practical part ie. input and output diagnostics, attended observations, questionnaires for the parents and analysis of the survey results. In this chapter there are analyses and...