Talk 2 Baby DVD
Talk 2 Baby Project
Introduction
“Talk 2 Baby☺” DVD was produced and developed as a joint project by a Flying Start Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Flying Start Specialist Midwife and Community Nursery Nurse working with pregnant teenagers.
The DVD can be purchased as a training and learning tool by contacting Yvonne.griffiths5@wales.nhs.uk.
Flying Start is a Welsh Assembly Government initiative that aims to make a decisive difference to the lives of all children under the age of 4yrs in specific post coded localities (WAG, 2005).
The main impetus of the “Talk 2 Baby☺” project was that during a joint home visit between the Speech and Language Therapist and the Midwife, a young mum asked,
“Do I need to talk to my baby? What is the point he can’t understand?”
In general, some teenage parents do not show any realisation of the importance of talking to their babies, particularly if the baby is at the non-verbal stage of communication development. Teenage parents appear to need confidence and strategies to help them engage in what many mothers would view as instinctive.
Objectives
- To demonstrate the importance of early bonding in the ante-natal and immediate post-natal periods.
- To give the message regarding the importance of talking to your baby from very early on in pregnancy.
- To highlight the importance of effective parent-child interactions as a basis for a positive lifelong relationship.
Method
We initially set a time frame from start to completion as twelve months. We choose the DVD format as we were becoming increasingly aware of the poor literacy skills that seemed to be a common theme in this client group. Also, a visual format appeared to be a far more acceptable, user friendly health promotion tool to this client group in comparison to the copious quantities of leaflets handed to expectant teenage parents.
We decided to recruit teenagers and ask them for their expressions of interest from an already established teenage group run by the Flying Start Midwife and Community Nursery Nurse.
Despite our initial reservations about the commitment of the teenage parents to the project, they demonstrated enthusiasm and dedication throughout the whole process.
We used a range of locations to demonstrate key messages around interaction and bonding commencing at the ante-natal stage through to talking with your baby at nine months of age. These included the teenage parents homes, family centres and the ante- natal and ultrasound departments at the hospital to add variety and meaning to the scenes.
A local production company was employed in order to film and produce the DVD with our guidance and expertise driving the editing process throughout. Following this, we designed the sleeve with the help of colleagues and of a graphic design company who took our ideas forward to completion.
The Differing Perspectives Involved
As three different professionals coming from three different perspectives, we felt it was really important to come together and share our expertise whilst also noting the differences in our knowledge and skills.
The importance of talking to your baby was a key message that we wanted to highlight to the teenage parents. The rationale for this and its positive effects on parent-child interactions and development later on are clear from the plethora of research in the field. For example, a study of the language skills of nursery children in four areas of social deprivation in the UK found over half to be language delayed (Locke et al, 2002).
Children need well developed language skills by the time they enter school, in order to benefit from their subsequent education and develop good literacy and social skills (DfES, 2003).
The positive effect of providing early intervention to children and their families is therefore really important in order to prevent language delay occurring later on in childhood.
Furthermore, it is also known that teenage mums are three more times as likely as their adult counterparts to develop postnatal depression (Ermisch 2003) which in turn may compromise the processes of bonding and attachment (Martins& Gaffen 2002). Placing a greater emphasis on communication strategies throughout pregnancy and the very early postnatal period, may contribute to reducing teenage mum’s susceptibility to postnatal depression and the associated negative effects of this condition.
Content of the DVD
We used a variety of activities which aimed to promote and encourage early language and communication development in children throughout the DVD. The teenage parents themselves carried out these activities with their babies with the aim of enhancing their ability to carry over the activities to their home situation thereafter.
Evaluation
To formally evaluate the project we asked the nine teenage parents involved in the production to complete a questionnaire before becoming involved in the DVD production and issued the same questionnaire after the teenage parents viewed the completed film. Each question was based on a 0 – 10 Likert Scale. We had a response rate of 89% for pre DVD questionnaire completion and a response rate of 78% for post DVD questionnaire completion
The following table summarizes the mean scores of the responses to the questions posed. There was a significant difference between pre and post mean scores. This is illustrated in the bar graph below.
To gain qualitative results, we also had a small focus group with the teenage parents who participated in the DVD following their initial viewing of the completed product. Some of their comments are shown below.
“Brilliant, really good.”
“She chats to me all the time”
“She copies all the sounds I makes”.
“Really enjoyed being involved in the project”
Of note is that all the teenage parents stated they were willing to engage in future similar projects.
Conclusion
When the project started to evolve it became evident that we were able to address far more than our initial objectives. Apart from giving the teenage parents involved with the production of the DVD a greater insight into how to communicate with babies the group provided a network and forum for peer support and a sense of belongin.
The most notable positive outcome was the improved self esteem and confidence of the teenage parents involved in the production. They engaged in the process with enthusiasm and eagerness and demonstrated an ability to apply the interaction games and techniques with their babies outside of the specific filming scenarios. They also showed dedication and commitment to the project, engaging proactively from start to finish. This was an outstanding accomplishment given their vulnerabilities.
There was no incidence of post-natal depression in any of the girls that took part in the project to date. Further more, there was clear evidence of enhanced bonding, attachment and communication with their babies after the DVD was shown to them. This was evident during attendance at their weekly midwife-led groups and through their questionnaire and focus group feedback.
Overall, we feel this was a positive project which had beneficial effects on the teenage parents and their babies. We hope that it will act as a successful preventative measure and we look to roll it out to as many pregnant teenagers/teenage parents and/or groups that are running as possible as we feel this is a very valuable teaching tool that could also be used with any new parents/ parents to be.
Reference List
Centre for Attachment, 2010 (www.centreforattachment.com)
Department for Education and Skills (2003), Foundation Stage Profile (London: QCA Publ.)
Ermisch, J (2003) Does a ‘ teen birth’ have longer term impacts on the mother? Suggestive evidence from the British Household Panel Study. ISER Working Papers no 2003-32
Locke, A., Ginsborg, J and Peers, I (2002). Development and disadvantage: implications for the early years and beyond. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 37, 3-15
Martins C & Gaffen EA (2002) Effects of early maternal depression on patterns of infant mother attachment: a meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry; 41:737-46
Social Exclusion Unit (1999).Teenage Pregnancy. London. The Stationary Office; National Statistics.
WAG (2005). www.cymru.gov.uk/flyingstart
Text provided by Flying Start.
