Do Video Materials Help Parents to Support Infant Development?

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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
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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).

Official Title
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A Randomised Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy of BBC Education's Tiny Happy People Content in Supporting Infant Language Development.

Conditions
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Language Development

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: BBC Education Tiny Happy People videos
* Behavioral: Physical health control intervention


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 4 Months
Maximum Age: 9 Months

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Quadruple


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: BBC Tiny Happy People intervention<br>Parents 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. | Behavioral: BBC Education Tiny Happy People videos<br>* This intervention involves regular texting of BBC Education Tiny Happy People videos to parents<br>|
| Active Comparator: Physical health control<br>Similar 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 | Behavioral: Physical health control intervention<br>* This intervention involves regular texting of publicly available videos about supporting infant physical and dental health to parents<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 18 month expressive vocabulary | Infant expressive vocabulary, assessed using the communicative development inventory (CDI) at 18 months | 2 months. Parents will complete the report within 2 months of the infant turning 18 months old. | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Caregiver responsive behaviour at 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. | Measures will be collected within 2 months of the child turning 12, 18 and 24 months | 
| Caregiver self-efficacy at 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. | Measures will be collected within 2 months of the child turning 12, 18 and 24 months | 
| 24 month expressive vocabulary | Infant expressive vocabulary, assessed using the communicative development inventory (CDI) at 24 months | 3 months. Parents will complete the report within 3 months of the infant turning 24 months old. | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Vocabulary, socioeconomic status, Parenting, language, parent-child interaction, self-efficacy, infancy