Playtime for toddlers: can group games boost early development in madagascar?
NCT ID NCT05129696
First seen Jun 25, 2026 · Last updated Jun 27, 2026 · Updated 1 time
Summary
This study tested whether adding regular play sessions for young children (6-30 months) to existing community health and nutrition programs in Madagascar helps child development. Over 8,000 children and their caregivers took part. The goal was to see if this approach is practical and beneficial for both children and community health workers.
What this could mean
Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.
- Active substance
- behavioral intervention: bimonthly group play sessions for children aged 6-30 months
- What this could lead to
- If successful, this could show that adding simple play sessions to existing health programs is a practical way to support early childhood development in low-resource communities.
- What could go wrong
- This is a completed study, but results may not apply to other settings. The intervention is behavioral, so effects may be small or hard to measure.
This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.
Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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8,150 people
The number who actually took part.
- Started
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Feb 2021
- Finished
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Mar 2025
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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6 months to 99 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Accepted
You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.
Show the full entry requirements Hide the full entry requirements
Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria for communities: 1. No other ECD programs present in the community or neighboring communities; 2. At least 40 children monitored at the nutrition center in the target age range of 6-30 months (monitored is defined as attending at least one growth monitoring session between July 2019 to August 2020); 3. Stable supervisory presence. Local NGOs are contracted to monitor and supervise all community health workers and help to strengthen linkages with local structures such as the community health committees and primary care facilities. Each NGO supervisor is in charge to up to 9 communities, which they visit twice a month. The investigators defined stable presence as not having had NGO turnover within the last year. Among the communities included, children 6-30 months were eligible to participate in the intervention. There was no inclusion criteria for community health workers.
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As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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L'Office National de Nutrition (ONN)
Antananarivo, Madagascar
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