Supporting early learning: An audio-video program for low-literate parents of young children in urban India

• RCT of a mobile-based parenting program with low-income families in India. • Audio-video messages designed for low-literacy parents via mobile phones. • Small socioemotional effects, stronger for children over 5, attenuated after FDR. • No impacts on parent engagement, academics, or child behavior outcomes. • Findings inform scalable ECD interventions in low-resource urban settings. Mobile-based communication is an increasingly viable strategy for delivering educational and parenting interventions in low-resource contexts. This study reports findings from a randomized controlled trial ( N = 525; M age = 36.9 years) in Mumbai, India, evaluating a low-cost parenting program delivered via audio and video messages during COVID-19 school closures. The intervention targeted families with young children (ages 3–7; 48% girls), with a focus on promoting early learning among low-literacy caregivers through a deliberately designed audio- and video-based format that required no reading. The program had no statistically significant impact on the primary outcome of parental cognitive stimulation ( d = 0.10, ns). However, small-to-moderate improvements in children’s socioemotional skills were detected ( d = 0.28, p < 0.05), though these effects only reached marginal statistical significance after adjusting for multiple comparisons ( q = 0.05–0.07). There were no impacts on children’s academic skills, engagement with educational materials, or internalizing/externalizing behaviors. Exploratory analyses showed no differential impacts by maternal education or household food insecurity, but larger impacts on socioemotional outcomes for older children. Within the treatment group, message satisfaction and comprehension were not associated with any outcomes. Findings highlight the promise and limitations of brief, mobile-based interventions in low-resource settings. Implications are discussed for designing more intensive or interactive supports to strengthen foundational learning and parenting practices in similar contexts.