A new partnership study with the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) and led by DSPI Head of Department Professor Jane Barlow, was announced by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, as reported by spi.ox.
The partnership will support health visitors’ work with families in promoting infant wellbeing and social development and is spearheaded by Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales.
Dr Jane Barlow, Professor of Evidence Based Intervention and Policy, DSPI said:
“This is a very exciting opportunity to focus on babies’ behaviour, using the new observation tool, the ADBB. This tool can help health visitors focus on the ways babies communicate, using eye contact, facial expressions and vocalisation etc. We can learn so much by using it and potentially help identify those families where additional support might be needed.”
Alison Morton, iHV CEO added:
“We are delighted to be working with Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood and Professor Jane Barlow on this exciting new programme of work with health visitors.
Through working with Her Royal Highness, I know how committed she is to helping all children have a happy and healthy childhood and this can only happen if we have a much greater focus on the earliest years of life – everyone has a part to play to make sure that no child is left behind.”
According to spi.ox, the ADBB was developed in France and is widely used in many other countries – this study will help us understand how it works with parents in England – and in the context of the HV service in England.
