One family in four has no toy or book at home

One in four Moldovan families does not have a toy or a book at home, according to UNICEF statistics. These families have mostly a lower socioeconomic status and the parents have principally secondary education only. Larisa Vartosu, early education programs coordinator at UNICEF, has told Info-Prim Neo that reading and playing in the family develop the child’s cognition and are very important in early childhood. “Regretfully, the child development indicators have worsened. The number of parents who read to their children and of those who know the signs of danger has decreased. This means that there will be negative effects on the child’s health and on the preparedness for school in the future,” she stated. According to UNICEF data, 26% of the families in Moldova do not have a book at home and there is no reading in the family mainly in the rural areas, where the rate of admissions to education institutions among children of an early age is only 69%. Larisa Vartosu considers that a part of the existing problems can be solved by implementing a national parent program within which to explain to the parents the importance of reading in the family for the early development of the child. As many as 27,000 children do not attend early childhood education institutions in Moldova.