FECD2025: Fundamentals of Early Childhood Development for Healthcare Workers – Online Course

Adult human capital and productivity are dependent on a sturdy foundation established  during childhood. Healthcare workers are the front-line custodians ensuring the optimization of a child’s growth and development in order to achieve good outcomes. The Fundamentals of Early Childhood development course is designed to promote knowledge and practice in early childhood development (ECD) by giving an overview of the neurobiology of early brain development, ecology of childhood, positive parenting and support, developmental milestones, developmental surveillance and screening and atypical development. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome you to this transformative learning journey!

This marks the third time the Kenya Paediatric Association (KPA) has had the privilege of offering this comprehensive course, and we’re excited to continue building our community of healthcare professionals dedicated to ECD. This course creates an avenue for healthcare workers to acquire skills in the early identification of children with developmental delays, positive parenting and promoting nurturing care. Supporting early childhood development involves multi-sectoral partners working collaboratively to ensure children of all abilities grow up in safe, stable and nurturing environments. Building capacities during the early years ensures every child thrives to achieve their individual potentials and develop into healthy and productive members of society.

This course has been thoughtfully designed to equip you with essential knowledge and practical skills in ECD fundamentals. What makes this learning experience truly unique is our integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) enhanced simulated scenarios throughout the course. These innovative simulations will enhance your learning experience by providing realistic, hands-on practice opportunities that will strengthen your ability to promote nurturing care with your patients and their families. We hope that this course will impact your daily practice as we aim to integrate nurturing care into daily practice.

Beyond the immediate learning outcomes, we’re excited to announce that we will be selecting a distinguished group of ECD Champions from among those who excel in this course. These champions will receive additional specialized training in ECD advocacy, empowering them to become leaders and advocates for early childhood development in their communities and beyond.

This continuing education program has been developed for healthcare professionals to advance their competencies in early childhood development practice. Please note that course completion does not confer specialist certification in Early Childhood Development.

We are thankful and acknowledge the support of the American Academy of Pediatrics, World Health Organization, UNICEF and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

Dr. Susan Wamithi
Developmental Paediatrician
Project and Course Director  

Course Information

The fundamentals of the ECD course for healthcare workers will run over 6 weeks. There are 6 modules which will start on 21^st July 2025. Each module will run over a one-week period as follows:

1. Module 1: 21st July to 27th July 2025
2. Module 2: 28th July to 3rd August 2025
3. Module 3: 4th August to 10th August 2025
4. Module 4: 11th August to 17th August 2025
5. Module 5: 18th August to 24th August 2025
6. Module 6: 25th August to 31st August 2025

The course begins with a knowledge attitude and practice (KAP) survey. The modules are composed of lecture series, recommended reading material, module resources, AI enhanced simulated scenarios, discussion boards and multiple-choice questions. The pre-test multiple choice questions will be done prior to starting each module and will NOT count toward the final grade at the end of the week. All participants will be required to answer all the discussion board questions as well as to engage and reply to at least one of the other participant’s comments. This contributes to your final grade.

The discussion board will be manned by your instructors. The post-test multiple choice questions will be taken prior to proceeding to the next module. The quizzes are timed for 30 minutes and participants will have two attempts at the post-test quiz.

The chance to take the quiz will close by Sunday 11:59 pm at the end of each modular week. The quizzes are cumulative and one has to get a total of 70% on modular quizzes in order to pass the course. Kindly get in touch with our technical team if you have difficulties interacting with the course materials at ecd@kenyapaediatric.org. At the end of the course there will be a post course feedback form which you will be required to fill in order to receive your certificate.

Portal Walk-through