In 1997, Bala Mandir Research Foundation (BMRF) entered into an international partnership with the Hincks-Dellcrest Centre (now SickKids Garry Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health), Canada, to bring the latter’s Learning Through Play (LTP) programme and materials to India. Twenty years on, the programme and tool have become synonymous with government and non-government ECCD initiatives and parenting interventions across various states in India.

The programme was first introduced within the Bala Mandir institution, which served as an LTP teaching, and learning model. LTP projects in Bala Mandir spanned a range of critical issues, including institutional care, school health, home visitors, and play, many of which have now been converted into regular Bala Mandir programmes.

From 2000 onwards, BMRF began to expand the LTP programme beyond its own walls to other government and non-government organisations and schools across India. The ‘Joy of Parenting’ training programme, partially based on the LTPC, covered ECCD professionals, health and community workers, Kindergarten teachers, and NGOs working in various ‘parenting’ environments, such as urban slums, rural communities, tribal areas, orphanages, and difficult circumstances.

In 2008-2009, BMRF conducted LTP training programmes to empower partner organisations to train other NGOs in the field and take the programme forward in their own state. The LTP programme has steadily expanded from its roots in Bala Mandir, Chennai, to working with partners in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.

The LTPC Birth – 3 Years and 3 – 6 Years are now available in English as well as six regional languages: Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu.