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Reading to the Preterm Infant: Parent Perspectives on Barriers and Facilitators
Morgan E Hill1, Ashley Martin1, Sara B DeMauro2
1Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics (ME Hill, A Martin, SB DeMauro), Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - Roberts Center for Pediatric Research, Philadelphia, PA.
Insights
Parents reported unique challenges and helpful factors for reading to preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and at home. Addressing these barriers can improve early word exposure and cognitive development for high-risk infants.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal care
- Developmental psychology
- Pediatric reading interventions
Background:
- Preterm infants face unique developmental challenges.
- Early word exposure is critical for cognitive development.
- Parental involvement in reading can be impacted by NICU and home environments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify parent-reported barriers and facilitators to reading to preterm infants.
- To explore these factors in both the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and home settings.
- To inform strategies for enhancing cognitive development in high-risk infants.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study involving semistructured interviews with parents of preterm infants (born <33 weeks gestational age or birth weight ≤1500 grams).
- Infants were between 0 to 12 months corrected age.
- Interview data were coded to identify key themes regarding reading practices.
Main Results:
- Thematic saturation was reached with 23 parents of 28 infants.
- Four shared themes emerged for barriers: competing responsibilities and perceived developmental inappropriateness.
- Four shared themes emerged for facilitators: support people and understanding developmental impact.
Conclusions:
- Parental perspectives reveal novel targets for intervention programs.
- Addressing identified barriers and supporting facilitators can increase early word exposure.
- Interventions can be refined to support cognitive development from the NICU through the home environment.
Objective:
To describe parent-reported barriers and facilitators to reading to preterm-born infants, both in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and at home. We hypothesized that families of preterm infants face unique barriers previously not described in the literature, and that understanding barriers from the parent perspective will uncover strategies for improving the NICU environment and cognitive home environment and allow refinement of current reading programs.
Methods:
We performed a qualitative study of parents of 0 to 12 month corrected age infants presenting to neonatal follow-up clinic. Infants were born <33 weeks gestational age or with birth weight ≤1500 grams. Parents completed a semistructured interview about reading practices. Answers to open-ended questions were coded to highlight key themes.
Results:
We reached thematic saturation after interviewing 23 parents of 28 infants. Parent-generated items about barriers and facilitators to reading in the NICU and at home were each coded into 4 themes. Competing responsibilities and believing that reading was developmentally inappropriate were 2 shared themes for barriers to reading in both the NICU and home environment. Support people and understanding developmental impact were 2 shared themes for facilitators to reading in both the NICU and home environment.
Conclusions:
This qualitative work elucidates new targets for novel programs intended to support cognitive development of high-risk preterm infants. Addressing the unique, parent-reported barriers that we have identified and supporting adoption of the facilitators could increase word exposure for preterm infants, starting in the NICU and continuing at home.
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