Text messaging as an enhancement to home visiting: Building parents’ capacity to improve child language-learning environments

Abstract

The amount and quality of language-related interactions young children experience is related to their later development. The field has developed strategies to address this need, but in practice, parents rarely use them consistently or with high levels of fidelity. Given the need to modify such interventions so that they are used consistently and with fidelity, the purpose of this study was to evaluate whether text messaging used as an enhancement to the Promoting Communication Tools for Advancing Language in Kids (PC TALK) intervention would result in improvements in parent engagement in a home visiting program, parent fidelity of use of the Promoting Communication (PC) strategies, and child language outcomes. Standard analyses of differences associated with group assignment to text messaging versus a control group did not reveal differences in outcomes; however, secondary analyses within the text messaging group were conducted to determine whether unplanned variations in the number of text messages sent were related to parent engagement, parent strategy use, and consequently, child language outcomes. A greater number of PC strategy-focused text messages and the total number of text messages sent were associated with increases in parent engagement and parent fidelity of implementation of the PC strategies. Text messaging had an indirect effect on child communication outcomes via parent fidelity. Social validity data and implications for practice from these findings are discussed.