A new study published in Child Development found that indirect pathways through parental support of cognitive stimulation were statistically significant. That is, Video Interaction Project combined with home visiting through Family Check-Up (the Smart Beginnings model) increased preschool children’s language and literacy entirely via increases in cognitively stimulating parent-child interactions. These findings provide additional support for the theory of change of the SB model, which posits that the SB program would positively impact parental support of cognitive stimulation and subsequent improvements in children’s language and literacy. Importantly, these findings also extend previous work by linking increases in positive parenting practices to improvements in children’s school readiness. The results of this study indicate the importance of parenting practices as proximal processes for children’s development, and provide strong support for the potential of the SB model to impact children’s language, literacy, and other school readiness outcomes through increases in responsive parenting practices. The present results also build on and complement prior literature examining the specific and important role that early parental language and literacy activities, including reading and teaching, play in the development of children’s early word reading and vocabulary, and particularly for racial/ethnic minority children with low incomes and those who are dual language learners. The current findings also suggest that a tiered parenting intervention focused on support of positive parenting can be particularly effective in enhancing parental support of cognitive stimulation and, subsequently, child cognitive outcomes. This study has implications for the development of parenting interventions that seek to reduce poverty-related disparities in children’s school readiness abilities and shed light on the mechanisms through which such interventions impact development. Miller, E. B., Canfield, C. F., Roby, E., Wippick, H., Shaw, D. S., Mendelsohn, A. L., & Morris-Perez, P. A. (2023). Enhancing early language and literacy skills for racial/ethnic minority children with low incomes through a randomized clinical trial: The mediating role of cognitively stimulating parent–child interactions. Child Development, 00, 1–14.
Early Relational Health (ERH, parenting practices, relationship quality) is critical for children’s learning and healthy development. Pediatric primary care is a promising platform for promoting ERH due to its capacity to reach many families in a convenient and accessible location and low cost.
The Video Interaction Project (VIP) is a healthcare-based program that provides real-time video-feedback of parent-child play and reading interactions to families with children aged 0 to 36 months. The current study tested the minimal effective dose of VIP (i.e., fewest number of sessions needed to have an effect) in a real-world setting. Results showed that a single VIP visit was associated with increased responsive parenting behaviors (behaviors shown to promote child learning), with additional benefits seen following a second visit. These findings support offering VIP widely, regardless of whether families can attend multiple visits. To learn more, visit: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38040989/ Piccolo, L. R., Roby, E., Canfield, C. F., Seery, A. M., Weisleder, A., Cates, C. B., Tutasig, L., Matalon, M., Custode, A., Rodriguez, L., & Mendelsohn, A. L. (2023). Supporting responsive parenting in real-world implementation: minimal effective dose of the Video Interaction Project. Pediatric research, 10.1038/s41390-023-02916-4. The VIP team had a wonderful time catching up with one another over dim sum in NYC to celebrate the holiday season! We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and we are so excited for all that is to come in 2024! #playreadVIP
We have new findings to share on the impact of the Video Interaction Project!
In a recent study, we demonstrated strong evidence that Smart Beginnings boosts parents’ support of their child’s early learning across infancy and the toddler years. This research was published in the Journal of Pediatrics. Smart Beginnings is a unique parenting program that combines the universal delivery of the Video Interaction Project (VIP) at routine pediatric well-child visits with a second home visiting program called the Family Check Up (FCU), which is provided to families who face particular stressors. In VIP, parents are videotaped with their children for three to five minutes as they play or read with a new book or toy, with immediate feedback from a coach, who provides feedback and reinforces positive parenting behaviors. Parents take home the book or toy, video, and a plan for how to engage their child in reading and play at home. In FCU, parents meet with a social worker in the home to address family management issues or children’s challenging behaviors. Guidance is aligned with family strengths and goals. The social worker also connects parents with additional resources. Families in New York City and Pittsburgh were randomly assigned to Smart Beginnings or a control group at birth and followed across the first two years. Results showed that across time points during both infancy (6 months) and the toddler years (18 and 24 months) parents enrolled in Smart Beginnings had significantly higher scores on broad survey and observational measures of cognitive development and the home environment compared with parents in the control group. This included engaging children in activities such as reading, talking, and playing, and having higher levels of language quantity and quality. These findings suggest that participation in VIP and FCU has robust impacts on a wide range of positive parenting behaviors that persist across time for children of different ages. Results provide additional support for the effectiveness of the Smart Beginnings model in supporting parents during their children’s first years of life. To read the full article visit: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022347622010241 This randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessed the impact of a parent-child reading program called Universidade do Bebê (UBB), on parenting and child cognitive-linguistic and socioemotional outcomes. UBB was developed by Dr. Alan Mendelsohn and his team in collaboration with researchers at Instituto Alfa e Beto in Brazil. It consisted of monthly 1-hour workshops focusing on parent-child reading complemented by a book-lending library. The workshops’ curricula included videos and ‘live’ demonstrations of parents reading together, discussion of the importance of parent-child book reading, and strategies for reading aloud with children. UBB was previously studied in Boa Vista, RO, northern Brazil, with families with children ages 24-48 months, and has shown effects on parenting and child outcomes. In a new study in Arcoverde, PE, northeast Brazil, we sought to determine whether similar results would be found when UBB was provided beginning in pregnancy through early toddlerhood. 400 women, either pregnant or with small children 0–24 months, completed surveys about beliefs about early reading, parenting, reading and playing routines at home, and child development at baseline and again after approximately 11 months, when the program was interrupted due to COVID-19 restrictions. From August 2019 through March 2020, half of these families participated in UBB. Results from the 11-month follow-up in April 2020 were first published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (JDBP). Compared to the families in the control group (who did not receive the intervention), parent-child dyads who participated in UBB showed increased cognitive stimulation and awareness about the importance of early reading than controls, with no differences by parent literacy level and similar findings for women who were pregnant and families with children 0 to 24 months at enrollment. Findings from a second follow-up assessment in October 2020 were published in Nature Pediatric Research and demonstrated sustained impacts of UBB on parenting and parent-child reading 6 months into the pandemic. Remarkably, for families who did not participate in UBB increased COVID-19-related distress was significantly associated with reduced positive parenting and parent-child reading 6 months into the pandemic in, however such negative associations were buffered for the UBB group. Together, findings from both studies indicate that promotion of cognitive stimulation in the home through parent-child reading may be a critical strategy to improve early relational health and child development among vulnerable families, with potential for buffering pandemic-related distress and preventing delays in early child development. Citations:
Last month several members of VIP’s research team attended the Pediatric Academic Societies conference in Denver, Colorado where they presented their various research findings. We have exciting news from the Video Interaction Project! We recently published new findings in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Pediatrics! The study is the first to examine impacts of the Smart Beginnings project, a unique and innovative approach for promoting school readiness.
Smart Beginnings Like at all of our locations, VIP is delivered to families in the pediatric clinic. The exciting thing about Smart Beginnings (SB), a novel birth-to-three initiative, is that families who are found to have additional challenges have the opportunity to receive Family Check Up (FCU) in their home. Both VIP and FCU are prevention programs focused on promoting positive parent-child interactions, and in turn, children’s school readiness abilities. VIP is provided to families in the pediatric clinic at the time of well-child visits starting at birth. Each session, parents and children meet with a trained parenting coach for approximately 25 minutes. Coaches provide parents with a developmentally appropriate book or toy and briefly record the parent and child playing or reading together. Following the recording, the coach provides immediate feedback to the parent, highlighting strengths and positive parenting behaviors within the interaction. This process encourages the parent to reflect on the interaction, helps to support parenting self-efficacy, and promotes positive parent-child interactions that build the foundation for children’s learning and development. FCU is a brief family-centered program that is delivered in the home for families who are found to have additional risks and challenges, starting when infants are 6 months of age. The program uses clinical-level guidance tailored to the family’s needs and goals to provide additional support to families who need it. Our Newest Findings In this study we looked at 362 infants and parents who joined the study at birth in two different locations: Health+Hospitals/ Bellevue in New York City and UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital/UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Half the families at each site received VIP starting from birth while the other half did not take part in any program. The families in NYC were primarily Hispanic/Latinx while the families in Pittsburgh were primarily Black/African American. At 6 months (prior to starting FCU), parents completed surveys about their reading, playing, and teaching interactions with their infant. Parents and infants were also observed playing together for 10 minutes and their interactions were coded for parent language quality and quantity and behaviors that stimulate child development. At 6 months, parents who participated in VIP had higher survey scores overall, particularly in domains reflecting reading and teaching interactions. Parents who participated in VIP also had higher scores on observed measures of parenting, including language quality, quantity, and cognitive stimulation. Importantly, large effects were shown in the sample overall and in both sites. The Takeaway Message SB is one of the first tiered models linking and integrating intervention programs across pediatric primary care and home visiting to prevent disparities in early development and school readiness. This study showed that VIP delivered as the first phase of SB had strong impacts on parenting behaviors across two geographically distant sites with mothers from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. Future research at later time points will further determine impacts and feasibility of the integrated, comprehensive SB model. Want to Know More? Learn about our research here! Or read this NYU Langone NewsHub article and check out this clip of Dr. Alan Mendelsohn on Bloomberg Quicktake! As the holiday season approaches and the year comes to a close we would like to share our gratitude and appreciation for our team, funders, and partners in their support of VIP. This past year has been filled with challenging times, novel circumstances, and most importantly – resilience. In the Spring, our team worked hard to quickly adapt Video Interaction Project for remote delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a team we rallied together to ensure that our families would continue to receive one-on-one sessions, resources, and support from our VIP Coaches. Every individual’s effort led us to successfully launch “Virtual VIP” in April and bring VIP (virtually) to the homes of over 1,000 families since then.
Despite the challenges that this year brought we were still able to successfully launch VIP at two new locations: NYC H+H/Queens in Jamaica, Queens, and Children’s Aid Bronx Health Services in the Bronx. Over the summer we began conducting sessions with families at both of these new locations and have received enthusiastic feedback from both sites. These two new locations bring our total up to ten sites total across 3 states. We are proud and incredibly grateful to continue bringing VIP to more children and their parents every year and it would not be possible without the effort of our fantastic team of VIP Coaches, our research team, supervisors, and Center of Excellence staff. We also are so thankful to the pediatric providers, staff, and administrators at our sites who share our love for this program. A special thank you goes out to our funders who make all of this possible by continuing to support this important work. Most importantly, we are thankful for our patients who are the reason we work hard every day! Have a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season! Love, The VIP Team VIP Co-Founder and Chief of Pediatrics at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Dr. Benard Dreyer recently published an article, “The Death of George Floyd: Bending the Arc of History Towards Justice for Generations of Children” in Pediatrics discussing the importance of racial equality for the health of future generations. Dr. Dreyer has also served as past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2016. In the article, the authors point out how pediatricians can use their power to deconstruct racial injustices. Working closely with families and children gives pediatricians a unique opportunity to play a role in working toward an equal society for the well-being of future generations of children. The authors also provide suggestions for policies that if implemented could lead to effective changes.
Despite past tragic events, similar to ones happening today, society has more or less maintained the “status quo”– until now. Individuals and communities are coming together to stand up for the critical changes needed for a racially just society. One way healthcare workers have showed up for the patients they care for was by forming Pediatricians Against Racism and Trauma (PART) last year. PART is comprised of over 60 pediatrician leaders from across the country, including VIP Co-Founders Dr. Alan Mendelsohn and Dr. Benard Dreyer, who call for policy changes and action. As stated in the article, structural racism lays the foundation for many injustices to be built upon. Some of those injustices include: bias in the delivery of care to Black children and families, bias in medical schools and healthcare, mass incarceration of youth of color and the parents of children of color, discrimination against Black, Native American, and Latinx families in housing, education, and employment, microaggressions suffered by individuals of color during daily life, criminalization and detention of immigrant families at the border, and denial of benefits. These overwhelming injustices lead to a life of chronic fear and emotional trauma in children, youth, and families which is why change is so crucial. As the American Medical Association stated, “police brutality is a health issue.” Therefore, healthcare workers are in a vital position to play a part in leading the way toward change. Not only do the authors of this article state where many issues lie, they also provide evidence-based policies for achieving successful changes. Those six policy recommendations are:
While this list is not exhaustive, it is comprehensive and offers opportunities for policymakers to carve a path towards justice so the children of tomorrow can thrive in a society that is not built against them. At VIP we support and stand with peaceful protestors in the pursuit of a better tomorrow. To read the full article click here: https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2020/06/23/peds.2020-009639 Society for Research in Child Development hosted a webinar this week, open for anyone to join, to facilitate a conversation about working towards antiracism in the developmental research community. SRCD is a professional society for the human development field, with a focus on child development. SRCD aims to understand human development in order to improve human well-being. (Wiley) It comes as no surprise that an organization rooted in studying and improving the lives of humans, particularly children, would be one to host this webinar. All in attendance had the opportunity to hear from three scholars about their experiences with racism and journey toward becoming antiracist.
Eleanor Seaton, PhD, began by speaking about the crucial role adults play in children’s learning of race and how at the young age of 3-4 years old they begin to grasp ideas about race. Dr. Seaton turned the conversation to Rebecca White, PhD, MPH and Margaret Caughy, Sc.D who shared their journeys on working toward antiracism as White women. A significant personal experience Dr. White shared was how she came to terms with understanding what privilege meant to her. Growing up poor she did not feel like she was privileged; however, she came to understand that socioeconomic status was not comparable to race. While the struggles of poverty affect families deeply, racism exacerbates those struggles even further. The panelists also discussed how inequalities show up in research and ways in which White researchers could move towards change. Particularly in samples and measures, eurocentrism heavily occurs with an overwhelming amount of standardization of White or Western experience as the normative or default development. The scholars on the panel urge researchers to identify race in their work and to not take a “colorblind” lens. Racial differences matter to outcomes; however, Dr. Seaton also advised that race does not exist exclusively. The intersection of race, gender, age, class, and more all contribute to multiple systems of oppression. In order to create change developmental researchers must take on the duty of unlearning and relearning history, with the goal of being intentional in their work moving forward. As a part of our team effort to be active learners within our community, a number of our staff attended SRCD’s webinar. Afterward, team members took part in personal conversations and shared their thoughts and reactions in a safe (virtual) space with colleagues. As a community we continue to take steps towards becoming actively antiracist by promoting ways to educate young children about race on our social media, engaging in dialogue with one another, and participating in learning opportunities like this one. |
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