Promoting Infant-Directed Speech in Ghana

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Infant Development
• Interventions: Behavioral: Infant Directed Speech (IDS) Video + IDS Wall Calendar

• Registration Number: NCT04807907
• Lead Sponsor: Northwestern University

Brief Summary

The study is a randomized evaluation of a low-cost intervention that encourages mothers and other caregivers to talk to infants, or to engage in what is known as infant-directed speech (IDS) as a way of promoting language and brain development in Tamale and surrounding areas, Ghana.

Detailed Description

While parents universally use "baby talk" to soothe an infant or get her attention, engaging in a second form of infant-directed speech (IDS) - talking to young children with complete, if simplified, sentences and a rich variety of words -- varies by socioeconomic status (SES) within societies and across societies. Preliminary evidence collected from Burkina Faso and Ghana, as well as anecdotal experiences in Kenya and Uganda, are consistent with this: It is less common for parents in sub-Saharan Africa to talk to their infants than it is among parents in the US. Because IDS promotes cognitive development of children, gaps in IDS compound the disadvantages that children in poorer families face.

The most likely explanation for the IDS deficit among the poor is inaccurately low expectations about the pace of child development. A large body of literature in the US has shown that the lower the parents' SES, the lower their expectations about when children will master certain cognitive skills, e.g. speaking in a partial sentence of 3 words or more.

The study is a randomized evaluation of a low-cost intervention that encourages mothers and other caregivers to talk to infants, or to engage in what is known as infant-directed speech (IDS) as a way of promoting language and brain development in Tamale and surrounding areas, Ghana.

Parental beliefs about and practices of IDS will be evaluated through data obtained from a series of questions on these topics at baseline, during a short phone follow-up survey, and at endline. This will mainly be self-reported although we hope to explore the observation of said practices at endline. Results of the treatment arm will be compared to that of the comparison group to determine if the intervention is effective. To assess IDS behavior and child language development at endline, the LENA system (Language ENvironment Analysis) which produces two key measures It produced two key measures: adult word count (language the child hears) and conversational turns (the sounds/words the child produces in conversation with adults/others) will be compared among groups. Conditional on funding, there may be a 2-year follow-up survey (i.e. second endline) to measure children's cognitive development.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-03-02
• Study First Submitted: 2021-03-12
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-03-18
• Study First Posted: 2021-03-19
• Primary Completion: 2021-12-07
• Study Completion: 2024-06-01
• Status Verified: 2024-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-07-23
• Last Update Posted: 2024-07-24

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 2800

Inclusion Criteria

• Adult women who visit government health facilities/outreach posts for antenatal, postnatal, or child welfare clinic visits in Tamale and surrounding areas, Ghana.
• Must be age 18 to 40 years old
• Be either pregnant or mothers of young infants at the time of baseline.
• Must speak English or Dagbani (a language local to Tamale and the surrounding areas)

The endline survey will also include child participants.

Child Inclusion Criteria:

• Must be the biological children (or wards) of the baseline respondents
• Must be age 2-18 months old during the endline period

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Infant Directed Speech (IDS) Video + IDS Calendar	Infant Directed Speech (IDS) Video + IDS Wall Calendar	The participant will be shown a 3-minute video describing the value of IDS and how the participant can use IDS with their child. The participant will receive an IDS-themed wall calendar.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Self-reported parental beliefs about the value of IDS (Index)	10 hours	Questionnaire about at what age the participant believes parents should begin speaking, singing, telling stories, etc. to their child using regular speech (i.e. real words, full sentences). Answers will be used to construct an index.
Self-reported parental IDS behavior (Index)	10 hours	Questionnaire about whether the participant uses infant directed speech, and if so, the frequency of this behavior. Answers will be used to construct an index.
Number of conversational turns	10 hours	Number of back-and-forth alternations between a child and an adult during conversation
Adult word count	10 hours	Number of words spoken to child

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Northwestern University; 🇺🇸 Evanston, Illinois, United States