Exploring Health Care Providers, Families and Educators' Perceptions of an Online Self-Paced F-Words for Child Development Foundations Course.

Recruitment was limited to people at children's health care centres in Ontario, where CanChild and the F-words are well known. Two-thirds (37 of 55) had already heard of the F-words before the course, so this says little about what the course does for someone new to the idea. The 55 people who finished the course and filled in the survey chose to do so and are likely to have been motivated, so they may have rated the course more favourably than others would. There is no comparison group and nothing was measured about what changed in practice or for children. These are people's opinions of a course. Most respondents were health care providers (36 of 55), with few educators, family members or people with lived experience, so the results say less about how those groups experience the course. Most people watched the videos but fewer completed the workbook, reflection questions, activities or extra resources, so their views are mostly about the videos. Some people completed the survey a few months after finishing the course and were answering from memory.

The course was built by the CanChild F-words team, the same team that ran and reported this evaluation. Course development was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, which has adopted the F-words in its provincial guidelines, and health care providers at the Ontario centres were required to complete the course. The evaluation was funded by Kids Brain Health Network and Brain Canada, and one author is funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research award. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Do not read the positive ratings as proof the course changes practice or helps children. These are the opinions of 55 people in one Canadian region who chose to take the course and fill in the survey, most of them health care providers already familiar with the F-words and required by their employer to complete it. No patient outcomes were measured and there was no comparison group.