Clinical trial NCT04807907: Promoting Infant-Directed Speech in Ghana
Official title: Promoting Infant-Directed Speech in Ghana
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Infant Development
Keywords: infant directed speech
Lead sponsor: Northwestern University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Stanford University
First posted: 2021-03-19
Enrollment: 2800
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 40
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: The treatment groups are randomly assigned, as follows:

* Infant Directed Speech (IDS) Video (Treatment; 50%): 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.
* Control (50%): No intervention. The participant will receive a regular wall calendar.
Primary purpose: OTHER

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.

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Adult word count
timeFrame: 10 hours
measure: Number of conversational turns
timeFrame: 10 hours
measure: Self-reported parental beliefs about the value of IDS (Index)
timeFrame: 10 hours
measure: Self-reported parental IDS behavior (Index)
timeFrame: 10 hours
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Evanston
country: United States
facility: Northwestern University
state: Illinois
Study officials:
References: