MedPath

Do Video Materials Help Parents to Support Infant Development?

Not Applicable
Conditions
Language Development
Interventions
Behavioral: Physical health control intervention
Behavioral: BBC Education Tiny Happy People videos
Registration Number
NCT04919343
Lead Sponsor
University of Sheffield
Brief Summary

The aim of this project is to assess whether video materials from the BBC Tiny Happy People (THP) campaign are effective in terms of improving the language skills of socioeconomically disadvantaged children before they start school. This project will also look at how useable the service is for parents in terms of acceptability, effects on self-efficacy and implementation of advice.

Detailed Description

The current study will evaluate BBC Education's Tiny Happy People initiative (https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people) which seeks to reduce the impact of social and economic disadvantage on children's language skills before they arrive at primary school. BBC Education have created videos for parents and other caregivers with information about child development, tips and activities as well as other content of interest. The aim of the evaluation is to find out how parents feel about the materials and whether the videos promote a) caregiver confidence at 12, 18 and 24 months, b) caregiver-infant interaction at 12, 18 and 24 months and c) child language at 18 and 24 months. The primary outcome is expressive vocabulary size at 17-18 months. Families with 4- to 9-month-old infants who would like to take part will be randomly allocated either to a language support group or a physical health active control group and sent short, age-appropriate advice videos by text message three times a month until their children are 18 months old (with follow up videos for children until the age of 2 years where possible given study time limits).

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
UNKNOWN
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
435
Inclusion Criteria

Families must:

  • be raising their child as a monolingual English speaker (at least 80% of the language they hear in the home is English)
  • have a postcode in deciles 1-5 of the Office of National Statistics Index of Multiple Deprivation
  • have access to the internet and a device to watch videos (via smart phone)

Infants must:

  • be full term
  • have a healthy birthweight
Exclusion Criteria

Neither caregivers nor infants must have any significant known physical, mental or learning disability

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Physical health controlPhysical health control interventionSimilar to the experimental condition, parents will be sent links each month via SMS text message using FireText. These links will direct them to publicly available web content with tips to promote the healthy development of their baby, focusing on things such as healthy eating, physical activities, and dental care. The intervention will start when infants are aged 4-9 months and conclude when they are 18 months with a follow up to 24 months where time permits
BBC Tiny Happy People interventionBBC Education Tiny Happy People videosParents will be sent links each month directing them to BBC Tiny Happy People content via SMS text message using the secure service FireText. This content will be aimed at supporting language development. Parents will be asked to watch the video content and incorporate it into their parenting practices. The intervention will start when infants are aged 4-9 months and conclude when they are 18 months with a follow up to 24 months where time permits.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
18 month expressive vocabulary2 months. Parents will complete the report within 2 months of the infant turning 18 months old.

Infant expressive vocabulary, assessed using the communicative development inventory (CDI) at 18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Caregiver responsive behaviour at 12, 18 and 24 monthsMeasures will be collected within 2 months of the child turning 12, 18 and 24 months

Parents willing and able to upload a 5-minute video of a play time with their child will have the option to do so. A researcher will code the video using the PaRRis rating scale.

Caregiver self-efficacy at 12, 18 and 24 monthsMeasures will be collected within 2 months of the child turning 12, 18 and 24 months

Parents will be sent a self-efficacy questionnaire to complete in the format of a qualtrics survey, via SMS text message at each time point. Questions will focus on how parents feel about their parenting in general and supporting their child's language development and physical health.

24 month expressive vocabulary3 months. Parents will complete the report within 3 months of the infant turning 24 months old.

Infant expressive vocabulary, assessed using the communicative development inventory (CDI) at 24 months

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Sheffield

🇬🇧

Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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