SENSITIVE COMMUNICATION AND INTERACTION THROUGH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ICDP PROGRAMM

Abstract

The ICDP approach is based on the idea that the best way to help children is first to provide help for the children’s caregivers.1 
At the centre of basic human psycho-social needs is the need for establishing a long-term, stable, and caring relationship with the primary caregiver, without which children cannot develop properly. The objective, therefore, must be to sensitise care­givers, in order to enhance their ability to pro­vide good quality care and to release empathic feelings towards the children. The most feasible strategy for helping children on a large scale is to support and educate children’s network of stable caregivers, which in practice means sen­sitising families and communities to enhance their own ability to sustain the social, cultural and environmental conditions necessary for the growth and development of children.