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Updated: Nov 11, 2025
Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Enhancing the NICU language environment with a neonatal Cuddler program
Alicia Hersey1, Laurie Hoffman1,2, Richard Tucker2
1Department of Pediatrics, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Objective:
To compare effects of a language intervention on Cuddler and parent adult word counts (AWC), and to compare Cuddler versus parent and nurse-care times.
Design:
Prospective pilot cohort intervention study. Twelve Cuddler-low-visit (≤2/week) infant pairs and 17 high-visit (≥3/week) parent-infant pairs were enrolled. Each had a 16-hour baseline recording (R1) followed by a language curriculum with linguistic feedback and an outcome recording (R2) 1 week later. Bivariate group analyses and longitudinal negative binomial regressions were run.
Results:
After the intervention, there were non-significant increases in AWC/h for Cuddlers and high-visit parents. Cuddler AWCs were similar to high-visit parents and significantly higher than nurse-care times on both recordings. Within the low-visit group, hourly AWCs were higher when Cuddlers were present versus absent (R1 = 1779 versus 552, R2 = 2530 versus 534, p < 0.0001).
Conclusions:
NICU language environments are different for low-visit and high-visit infants and Cuddlers can increase infant language exposure in the NICU.
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