Using a randomized control trial, we are testing the following strategies to increase parents’ use of the Talk to Your Baby program and related early language and literacy resources:
These BE interventions implemented in the Harlem branch of the citywide Newborn Home Visiting Program (NHVP), which serves more than 1,000 new mothers annually. To test the intervention’s impact, we compare outcomes for two groups of parents, those randomized to receive the BE interventions and those who do not. The design allows separate assessment of the impacts of receiving any BE intervention and the cumulative effects over the infant’s first 6 months of life as distinct from the effects of the auto-enrollment/texting intervention alone.
The premise of these existing early language education interventions is that they will alter parents’ actual language behaviors with their infant. Can such BE interventions increase parent uptake of such interventions as well as increase positive language interactions with their infants? Two innovative data collection strategies provide a window into the infant’s home environment: we use text message responses to measure self-reported parenting behavior; and we use LENA audio recorders to assess naturalistic early language interactions in the home.
beELL-NYC Theory of Change
Starting in fall 2017, we recruited mothers of infant’s at approximately their 4th-6th month birthday to gather audio data from the infant’s home environment. Recruited mothers (n ~ 31; half experimental and half control) are participants in the larger beELL-NYC study. LENA recorders were worn by the infant in comfortable custom clothing.
Our evaluation focuses on the quantity and quality of language exposure for the child. The audio data were analyzed via LENA algorithms that identify speakers and provide outcomes related to adult word count, the number of parent-child conversational turns, and the amount of ambient television/electronics noise. In addition to these auto-generated measures, we are in the process of transcribing the 5-minute segments with the highest counts of adult utterances and conversational turns. Next, these segments will be analyzed for the number of different word types, the ratio of words to word types, and the Literate Language subscale of the Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language scale (MISL).
Plus, data from these audio recordings of caregiver-infant interactions are synchronized with data collection of parenting self-reported behaviors via text message and time diaries collected simultaneously with the timing of the audio recording.
Our goal is to triangulate across these low-cost, unobtrusive measurement strategies to inform how city-wide early language campaigns might impact the early language parenting behaviors, such as talking, reading and singing to young children.
- Automatic enrollment (opting out shifts the burden of making a decision, a key tenet of BE)
- Text messages that reinforce early language habits and provide positive affirmation of maternal identity (text reminders redirect attention that can help enforce parents’ habits)
- Opportunities to watch videos of positive language interactions, as well as positive affirmations of parenting skills (a teachable moment from a trusted source cements new ideas)
- A gift packet with information about local public resources, an activated library card, and links to the public library system (small rewards and opening channels is a key aspect of BE-inspired change)
These BE interventions implemented in the Harlem branch of the citywide Newborn Home Visiting Program (NHVP), which serves more than 1,000 new mothers annually. To test the intervention’s impact, we compare outcomes for two groups of parents, those randomized to receive the BE interventions and those who do not. The design allows separate assessment of the impacts of receiving any BE intervention and the cumulative effects over the infant’s first 6 months of life as distinct from the effects of the auto-enrollment/texting intervention alone.
The premise of these existing early language education interventions is that they will alter parents’ actual language behaviors with their infant. Can such BE interventions increase parent uptake of such interventions as well as increase positive language interactions with their infants? Two innovative data collection strategies provide a window into the infant’s home environment: we use text message responses to measure self-reported parenting behavior; and we use LENA audio recorders to assess naturalistic early language interactions in the home.
beELL-NYC Theory of Change
Starting in fall 2017, we recruited mothers of infant’s at approximately their 4th-6th month birthday to gather audio data from the infant’s home environment. Recruited mothers (n ~ 31; half experimental and half control) are participants in the larger beELL-NYC study. LENA recorders were worn by the infant in comfortable custom clothing.
Our evaluation focuses on the quantity and quality of language exposure for the child. The audio data were analyzed via LENA algorithms that identify speakers and provide outcomes related to adult word count, the number of parent-child conversational turns, and the amount of ambient television/electronics noise. In addition to these auto-generated measures, we are in the process of transcribing the 5-minute segments with the highest counts of adult utterances and conversational turns. Next, these segments will be analyzed for the number of different word types, the ratio of words to word types, and the Literate Language subscale of the Monitoring Indicators of Scholarly Language scale (MISL).
Plus, data from these audio recordings of caregiver-infant interactions are synchronized with data collection of parenting self-reported behaviors via text message and time diaries collected simultaneously with the timing of the audio recording.
Our goal is to triangulate across these low-cost, unobtrusive measurement strategies to inform how city-wide early language campaigns might impact the early language parenting behaviors, such as talking, reading and singing to young children.