Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 7, 2026
Author Spotlight: Capturing Infant-Caregiver Interactions Through Synchronized Multimodal Data Collection
Published on: May 31, 2024
Parent-Provider Communication Dynamics at 2- to 24-Month English and Spanish Well-Child Care Visits
Kendra Liljenquist1, Peter G Szilagyi2, Kevin Fiscella3
1Department of Pediatrics (K Liljenquist and TR Coker), University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Wash; Seattle Children's Research Institute (K Liljenquist, Y Guzman, J Ngai, and TR Coker), Seattle, Wash.
Insights
Well-child care visits are crucial for preventive health. Longer visits and positive rapport enhance parent-provider communication and discussions on child development and parenting.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Health Communication
- Child Development
Background:
- Well-child care visits are essential for early childhood preventive health.
- Limited visit time can restrict comprehensive topic coverage and parent-provider communication.
- Understanding communication dynamics is key to optimizing these crucial interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate preventive care topic coverage during early childhood well-child care visits.
- To analyze communication dynamics between parents and clinicians.
- To identify factors influencing effective communication in pediatric visits.
Main Methods:
- Audio-recorded 104 well-child visits for children aged 2-24 months in English and Spanish.
- Coded recordings for visit content (e.g., feeding, sleep) and communication dynamics (e.g., provider questioning).
- Employed qualitative and quantitative analyses, including Mann-Whitney U tests, to assess communication patterns.
Main Results:
- Topics most discussed were physical health, nutrition, and growth.
- Clinician and parent information exchange was significantly higher in English-language visits (p<0.001).
- Longer visits (>15 minutes) showed significantly more positive rapport building (p<0.01), linked to discussions on development (p<0.04) and parenting (p<0.03).
Conclusions:
- Enhanced parent-provider communication occurs with visits exceeding 15 minutes and frequent positive rapport building.
- Adequate visit time and rapport are vital for engaging parents in meaningful discussions during well-child care.
- Findings underscore the importance of optimizing visit structure for effective pediatric preventive care.
Objective:
Well-child care visits are critical, but time is limited, so we sought to better understand preventive care topic coverage and communication dynamics between parents and clinicians during early childhood well-child care visits.
Methods:
We audio-recorded 104 well-visits in English and Spanish for children aged 2 to 24 months. Recordings were coded for content (eg, feeding and sleep) and communication dynamics (eg, provider question asking). Following qualitative analysis, the number of codes for visit content and communication dynamics was calculated for further quantitative analysis. To assess general communication patterns between parents and clinicians, Mann-Whitney U tests were used to determine if the number of communication dynamic episodes differed significantly by parent language, visit length, and content discussed during the visit (eg, development and behavior).
Results:
Exactly 39% of visits were conducted in Spanish. Topics most often discussed related to physical health, nutrition, and growth. Instances of clinician and parent information giving happened significantly (P < .001) more often in English compared to Spanish visits. Longer well-child care visits have significantly (P < .01) more instances of positive rapport building; visits with positive rapport building are more likely to include discussions related to developmental milestones (P < .04), as well as parenting experience (P < .03).
Conclusions:
Parent-provider communication dynamics were enhanced when visits lasted over 15 minutes, and when positive rapport building was more frequent. Our findings highlight the importance of adequate time and rapport building during visits to facilitate engagement of parents in meaningful discussions.
More Related Videos
14:05Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
Published on: January 23, 2017
07:56Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Related Concept Videos
00:55Parental Care
01:30Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
01:28Relationship with Parents: Attachment
01:27Parenting Styles
Authoritarian Parenting
This style is strict and controlling, with little room for open dialogue. Authoritarian parents demand obedience and often enforce rules with minimal warmth. Children raised this way may lack social skills and initiative, usually comparing themselves to others unfavorably.
Authoritative...
01:21Barriers to Effective Communication II
Cultural barriers:
Differences in values, beliefs, religion, knowledge, and tradition can significantly impact communication. Awareness of nonverbal cues is critical, especially when conversing with a patient from a different culture. What appears appropriate in one culture may be inappropriate in another.
Semantic barriers:
As a result of their tendency to use...
01:30Therapeutic Communication
Verbal communication depends on language or a prescribed way of using words so that people can share information effectively. The critical aspects of verbal...