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Putting it on tape: audio taped assessment summaries for parents
1Child Development Centre, Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Insights
Tape recorded summaries of child development assessments were popular with parents, particularly those speaking Urdu/Punjabi. However, they did not improve information recall six weeks later, indicating a need for improved communication strategies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Health Communication
Background:
- Effective communication of multidisciplinary assessment findings is crucial for parents of children with developmental concerns.
- Traditional written reports may pose challenges for some parents in understanding complex information.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the benefits of providing parents with tape-recorded summaries of child development centre assessments.
- To compare recall and parental views on written versus tape-recorded summaries.
Main Methods:
- A prospective, randomized study involving 113 children attending a child development centre.
- Parents received either written summaries or tape-recorded summaries of their child's assessment.
- Outcomes measured included information recall and parental satisfaction with the summaries.
Main Results:
- No significant increase in information recall was observed six weeks post-assessment in parents receiving tape recordings.
- Tape-recorded summaries were favored by 43% of English-speaking parents and 89% of Urdu/Punjabi-speaking parents.
- Parental preference for tape recordings was significantly higher among non-English speaking parents.
Conclusions:
- While tape-recorded summaries are well-received by parents, especially minority language speakers, they do not enhance information recall.
- Alternative or supplementary methods are necessary to improve parental comprehension of multidisciplinary assessment implications.
- Addressing language barriers is essential for equitable understanding and engagement in child development services.
Objective:
To assess the benefits of giving parents tape recorded child development centre assessment report summaries.
Design:
Prospective randomly allocated study.
Setting:
Child development centre, Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Subjects:
Parents of 113 consecutive children attending for multidisciplinary developmental assessment.
Outcome Measures:
Recall of information and use of, and views on, the written and tape recorded summaries.
Results:
Parents who received the tape recording showed no increase in recall of the summary's content six weeks later. Forty three per cent of English speaking parents favoured the tape recorded summary, as did 89% of Urdu/Punjabi speaking parents.
Conclusions:
Tape recorded summaries were popular with parents, but other methods are needed to help parents, especially those whose first language is not English, to understand the implications of multidisciplinary assessment of their child.