Effectiveness of an intervention with mothers to stimulate children under two years.
Isolda Maria Barros Torquato, Neusa Collet, Franklin Delano Soares Forte and 3 others
PMID 31664417WHAT IT FOUND
After five-hour workshops, mothers of children under two at risk for development answered more questions correctly on a 22-item child stimulation test.
Only maternal knowledge was measured, not child outcomes, and there was no control group.
Key findings
01Mothers answered more questions correctly after the workshops, and the increase was significant for every item except question 4.
02On the 22-item questionnaire, the mean maternal knowledge score rose from 5.77 before the intervention to 18.60 after it.
03The item that did not improve significantly was about a child beginning to duplicate syllables around 3 months.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
There was no separate control group, so the knowledge gain could be due to repeated testing, maturation, or other changes over time. The study included 52 mothers from one municipality in Brazil, so the results may not apply to other settings. The outcome was maternal knowledge on a questionnaire, not measured child development or observed home stimulation. The authors stated that they could not say with certainty what caused the knowledge gain.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the workshops improved children's development. The study measured only maternal knowledge, had no control group, and did not report child outcomes.