Language Development, Parent-Child Relations
Conditions
Keywords
home visiting, LENA, infant language development, parenting
Brief summary
This study evaluates feasibility and efficacy of adding the LENA Home program to the standard Every Child Succeeds (ECS) home visiting curriculum. Half of the participants will receive the standard ECS curriculum during normally scheduled home visits, while the other half will receive this plus LENA Home.
Detailed description
Every Child Succeeds is a program that uses home visiting as a preventive strategy to support low income families in providing stimulating, safe, and nurturing environments for their young children. Most families in home visiting have experienced adversity in their lives, and had inadequate parenting role models as they grew up. Home visitors visit families during pregnancy through the child reaching three years of age, providing information, teaching, and resources to help parents provide the best possible start for their children. LENA Home is a 13-week curriculum designed to add an early-language focus to existing home visiting or parent education programs for children ages birth to three. It employs LENA wearable audio recorder technology and targeted content to help parents and other caregivers increase interactive talk. There are 13 weekly one-on-one sessions, including modules on parent-child reading and increasing verbal interaction during typical home activities. Sessions include videos, practical techniques, and feedback from LENA recordings via intuitive reports to help parents talk more with their children. LENA Home reports provide data on adult words spoken to the child (AWC) and conversational turns (CTC). LENA Home has been shown to increase interactive talk and child language ability and informs parents how much they are talking with their children in an objective way. Upon completion of the study, we will have more information regarding whether (1) LENA Home can be successfully integrated into existing home visiting programs (feasibility), (2) children exposed to LENA have larger vocabularies than those who do not receive the intervention, (3) mothers using LENA engage in more literacy-promoting behaviors relative to controls, and (4) LENA improves parent-child interactions (utility).
Interventions
BEHAVIORALLENA Home
LENA Home is a 13-week curriculum designed to add an early-language focus to existing home visiting or parent education programs for children ages birth to three. It employs LENA wearable audio recorder technology and targeted content to help parents and other caregivers increase interactive talk. There are 13 weekly one-on-one sessions, including modules on parent-child reading and increasing verbal interaction during typical home activities. Sessions include videos, practical techniques, and feedback from LENA recordings via intuitive reports to help parents talk more with their children. LENA Home reports provide data on adult words spoken to the child (AWC) and conversational turns (CTC). LENA Home has been shown to increase interactive talk and child language ability and informs parents how much they are talking with their children in an objective way.
Sponsors
Every Child Succeeds
The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation
Bethesda, Inc.
Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Intervention model description
This is a single-blind randomized trial with 2 groups.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
6 Months to 9 Months
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1. enrollment in the Every Child Succeeds home visiting program, 2. child age between 6- and 9-months old, 3. English-speaking household, 4. child gestation of at least 32 weeks, 5. child has no known neurobehavioral/genetic syndrome or brain injury likely to cause language delay, 6. maternal age at least 15 years old.
Exclusion criteria
Not meeting the above criteria.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Absolute Word Count | Baseline, Midpoint (6-7 week visit), Endpoint (13 weeks) | The LENA Home recording device measures Absolute Word Count (AWC) over an approximately 13-hour recording period at each recording. This outcome will involve change in AWC between baseline and a Midpoint assessment (approximately 6-7 weeks) and Endpoint (13-weeks). |
| Change in Conversational Turns Count | Baseline, Midpoint (6-7 week visit), Endpoint (13 weeks) | The LENA Home recording device measures Conversational Turns Count (CTC) over an approximately 13-hour recording period at each recording. This outcome will involve change in CTC between baseline and a Midpoint assessment (approximately 6-7 weeks) and Endpoint (13-weeks). |
| Change in LENA Snapshot Language Assessment Score | Baseline, Midpoint (6-7 week visit), Endpoint (13 weeks) | The LENA Developmental Snapshot is a questionnaire that provides parents with an |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in DialogPR-I/T (shared reading quality) Score | Baseline and Endpoint (13 weeks). | Dialog PR-I/T is a 10-item measure of shared reading quality (interactivity) for infants and toddlers developed by the PI that is derived from the validated DialogPR measure for older children. It involves evidence-based behaviors such as lap sitting, use of child-directed speech, and verbal responsivity. Range is 0-30, higher score suggests more interactive, nurturing reading. |
| Change in SPEAK (parenting mindset) score | Baseline and Endpoint (13 weeks) | The SPEAK assessment is an assessment of parental mindset towards their infant's development. Higher score suggests more empowered parental mindset. |
| Change in ScreenQ-I/T (screen-based media use) | Difference in score between Baseline and Endpoint (13 weeks) | ScreenQ-I/T is a 10-item composite measure of screen-based media use in the home referenced to current AAP guidelines for infants and toddlers, developed by the PI that is based on the validated ScreenQ measure for older children. Range is 0-23 points, higher scores suggest greater use contrary to AAP guidelines and greater developmental/health risk. |
| Change in StimQ-I (home cognitive environment) | Baseline and Endpoint (13 weeks) | The StimQ-I is a validated assessment of parent report measure of cognitive stimulation in the home for children up to 18-months old involving 4 subscales: availability of learning materials, parental involvement in developmental advance, parental verbal responsivity, and reading. Higher scores suggest more stimulating parental behaviors. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed