Self-guided behavioral skills training: A public health approach to promoting nurturing care environments

Abstract

The World Health Organization identified the promotion of “Nurturing Care Environments” as a global health priority. Responsive caregiving, 1 of 5 domains describing nurturing care, is critical for healthy child development. Relatively little research has evaluated population‐level interventions aimed to increase responsive caregiving during the first 1,000 days of an infant’s life. In this pilot study, we evaluated an intervention designed for population‐level dissemination that targeted responsive caregiving. The self‐guided behavioral skills training aimed to teach mothers to imitate infant vocalizations. The intervention was delivered within an on‐line asynchronous training. All 3 mothers increased vocal imitative behavior following training without receiving coaching or behavior‐specific feedback from an implementer. The results offer a preliminary proof of concept with implications for population‐level intervention design and evaluation.

Kerry A. Shea

Senior Research Scientist

I’m interested infant learning processes. I’m also interested in learning more about effective strategies to support caregivers to provide nurturing care environments. This is my personal page for me to share resources, musings, and everything in between.