10 Things We Did to Translate and Localize Vroom’s Early Childhood Parenting Tips
Co-authored by Nevertiti Al Dwaire
This year, IRC’s Education Unit and Airbel have begun prototyping new solutions to improve the cognitive and social-emotional development of young children affected by the Syrian crisis. Vroom, an initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation, promotes early childhood development by delivering bite-sized tips through fun games that parents can do within their daily routines. These tips have been developed by experts to promote brain development and each one explains an activity that parents can do as well as a “brainy background” or the science behind each activity.
Our challenge was to translate and localize these tips so that they could fit the language and lives of Syrian refugees. Here are 10 things we did to create high-quality translations and adaptations:
1. Interviewed experts, staff, and IRC’s clients about the type/level of formality of Arabic that would most likely promote behavior change.
Arabic styles range from informal spoken versions and dialects to Classical and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). We wanted to ensure these activities would be understood across the region, so we had to find an appropriate style of communication. Even experts couldn’t recommend a specific level of formality that should be used, but they suggested we test various approaches. Initially, there wasn’t consensus in our research — some Syrians we spoke to advised us to use a formal Arabic, while others thought this would sound weird strange since parenting is such an intimate experience. Additionally, Syrian children born in Jordan and Lebanon are adopting dialects of the host communities, so we needed to find an Arabic understandable by both parents and children. We knew that interviews alone would not get the answer we were looking for, and determined that further testing was needed.
2. Filmed a video prototype of a mother performing activities with her daughter.
Our actress-volunteer, a lovely Preschool facilitator with a five-year-old daughter, initially struggled to memorize and even pronounce the formal MSA translations. We realized our translations were too formal and that it was far from how parents actually speak to each other and to children. We found words more familiar to her and crafted shorter sentences to make memorization easier, and soon we began to settle on a simplified voice.
3. Switched up nouns and tried out songwriting in a few cases!
Making sure the subjects — nouns like animals, foods, plants, and other household objects — are familiar to the children living in displacement was a simple but critical step. Some Vroom tips only needed noun changes, like including locally-consumed foods (lemon, tomato, cucumber instead of banana, apple, orange). Other activities required adding popular Arabic nursery rhymes. We created songs to famous tunes that rhyme well and are familiar across the region. For example, for one bathing tip what we wrote roughly translates to, “clean your right leg, wash those beautiful fingers, don’t forget those hands.” The phrases rhyme in Arabic, and it sounds endearing and colloquial.
4. Did A/B testing (Testing option A versus option B).
We shared 40 formal MSA tips, and 40 simplified versions with our colleagues, the Syrian Outreach Volunteers, in the Azraq camp. We shadowed them as they tested out the games with their neighbors (Katelin watched for uptake and acceptability, while Nevertiti observed the language volunteers used to describe the games). The team with formal tips came back with notes written in informal Arabic — they found that parents wouldn’t understand them if they read them out in formal Arabic. As with our actress-volunteer, we learned that it was critical to avoid words that are no longer in common usage, so parents who are literate but without higher education could still understand instructions easily. Examining existing messaging also helped — for example, a poster about ending early marriage was ubiquitous in the Azraq camp and when asked about it, the volunteers said the message was well expressed and in the right tone to prompt action on the issue. This was further evidence to update our approach.
5. Racked our brains for cute, catchy names!
Sometimes this took the most time. The names needed to be both short and cute, while still retaining the full meaning in original English. This was actually a creative writing process to write in a way that would make parents eager to keep reading the full tip and brainy background (the simple explanation on how the activity benefits children’s brain development).
6. Made it kid-friendly, too.
We met some parents who couldn’t read at all, so the language should ideally be understandable for school-aged children. If a child reads it, he’ll be inclined to go tell his parents, “Look, can you try this with my brother and sister?”
7. Made the tips sound like they’re coming from someone who’s been through it before — but not your mother-in-law!
Most Syrian parents we interviewed said they like receiving parenting advice from an older sister, sometimes their mother, but we often heard of overbearing mother-in-laws (a truism around the world?). Using command verbs for activity descriptions is tricky in Arabic, since they can easily come off as patronizing, so this was another reason to make Vroom tips informal. We tried to retain a tone of importance since we were sharing info about brain development, but we wanted users to feel as if these tips come from a mother like them, like sisters chatting at tea time.
8. Shared facts on brain development that parents found motivating.
For mothers who already talk a lot to their babies, play peek-a-boo, dance and sign with young children, reading the brainy background was validating and exciting. One home visit that stands out in our minds is one where we discussed the “Babble On” tip. The mother’s face lit up and she said, “I do this already! My husband teases me for spending all this time talking to my nine month old son since he’s too young to understand, but now I know I was right to carry him around and talk with him while cooking and going about my chores. I could sense that he was understanding me and getting something from my attention to him but now that you confirm this, I feel so great.” She turned to her husband with a huge smile and said, “I told you!”
9. Built tips onto a foundation of what parents already do.
While testing tips during home visits, the volunteers would introduce them to parents and ask if they’d like to try them out on-the-spot, but parents would start telling us the similar things they already do. In our initial trips, we interviewed a number of Syrian parents about parenting and play, and often parents would tell us that they don’t play with their children because they feel it’s important to be respectable and serious around them. However, when we explored the specific examples via the Vroom tips, parents understood some interactions as playful but not “Play” with a capital “P.” We also found that not every Vroom tip was an instant success. For example, volunteers were hesitant at first about the bathing-related tips but when we dug deeper we found that the issue was with talking about bathing, which could be perceived as a little indecent, than about actually doing the activities. In the end, we learned several songs and stories that parents often sing or tell during bath time.
10. Ended with, “This is our Arabic.”
The Syrian team who worked with us on testing and translating ultimately signed off on these tips, saying “This is our Arabic!” which was a gratifying stamp of approval!
Ultimately, our team discovered the unique ways in which parents interact with their children, and localized Vroom tips based on what parents already do, writing them in an accessible version of Arabic with the assistance of our Syrian counterparts. Our next steps will be finding out the best mode of delivery to reach as many parents as we can in Jordan and Lebanon with these localized tips!
Next up: 7 Design Principles of Using Technology to Reach Syrian Refugee Families
