Parents Of Toddlers Research Articles

Can Flanders resist the measles outbreak? Assessing vaccination coverage in different age groups among Flemish residents

The Belgian strategic plan to eliminate measles contains several vaccination strategies including routine immunisation programmes and catch-up campaigns. A new expanded programme on immunisation-based survey (2016) assessed the uptake of the recommended measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in three different cohorts: toddlers, adolescents and parents of toddlers. A two-stage cluster sampling technique was used to select 875 toddlers (age 18-24 months) and 1250 adolescents (born in 2000) from 107 municipalities in Flanders. After consent of the parent(s), 746 (85.2%) families of toddlers and 1012 (81.0%) families of adolescents were interviewed at home. Measles vaccination coverage was high at 18-24 months (96.2%) and 81.5% were vaccinated at recommended age. Toddlers who had two siblings or a non-working mother or changed vaccinator were more at risk for not being vaccinated. Coverage of the teenager dose reached 93.5% and was lower in adolescents with educational underachievement or whose mother was part-time working or with a non-Belgian background. Only 56.0% of mothers and 48.3% of fathers remembered having received at least one measles-containing vaccine. Although measles vaccination coverage in toddlers meets the required standards for elimination, administration of the teenager dose of MMR vaccine and parent compliance to the recent measles catch-up campaign in Flanders leave room for improvement.

EHLS at School: school-age follow-up of the Early Home Learning Study cluster randomized controlled trial

BackgroundTargeted interventions during early childhood can assist families in providing strong foundations that promote children’s health and wellbeing across the life course. There is growing recognition that longer follow-up times are necessary to assess intervention outcomes, as effects may change as children develop. The Early Home Learning Study, or ‘EHLS’, comprised two cluster randomized controlled superiority trials of a brief parenting intervention, smalltalk, aimed at supporting parents to strengthen the early childhood home learning environment of infants (6–12 months) or toddlers (12–36 months). Results showed sustained improvements in parent-child interactions and the home environment at the 32 week follow-up for the toddler but not the infant trial. The current study will therefore follow up the EHLS toddler cohort to primary school age, with the aim of addressing a gap in literature concerning long-term effects of early childhood interventions focused on improving school readiness and later developmental outcomes.Methods‘EHLS at School’ is a school-aged follow-up study of the toddler cluster randomized controlled trial (n = 1226). Data will be collected by parent-, child- and teacher-report questionnaires, recorded observations of parent-child interactions, and direct child assessment when children are aged 7.5 years old. Data linkage will provide additional data on child health and academic functioning at ages 5, 8 and 10 years. Child outcomes will be compared for families allocated to standard/usual care (control) versus those allocated to the smalltalk program (group program only or group program with additional home coaching).DiscussionFindings from The Early Home Learning Study provided evidence of the benefits of the smalltalk intervention delivered via facilitated playgroups for parents of toddlers. The EHLS at School Study aims to examine the long-term outcomes of this initiative to determine whether improvements in the quality of the parent-child relationship persist over time and translate into benefits for children’s social, academic and behavioral skills that last into the school years.Trial registration8 September 2011; ACTRN12611000965909 (for the original EHLS)

Training of parental scaffolding in high-socio-economic status families: How do parents of full- and preterm-born toddlers benefit?

Preterm children have an increased risk regarding self-regulation development. Given the strong link between parenting behaviour (i.e., scaffolding and sensitivity) and children's self-regulation, parental training presents a promising way to counteract the negative consequences of preterm birth. We explored the effectiveness of parental training by comparing a basic scaffolding training and a combined scaffolding/sensitivity training to an active treatment-control group (stress management). Basic and combined treatments should increase parents' domain-specific self-efficacy (DSSE) and beliefs on parental co-regulation and the promotion of learning (BCL) more than the control treatment should. No such differences were expected for parents' domain-general self-efficacy (DGSE). We examined whether parents of preterm and full-term children benefitted equally from training conditions. A total of 87 parents of full-term and 35 parents of preterm toddlers (24-36months of age, corrected for prematurity) participated. Based on a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test follow-up design, parents were randomly assigned to treatments. A multimethod approach was applied, including self-report, parent-child interactions, and standardized behavioural tasks. The presented study is limited to questionnaire data on parents' DGSE, DSSE, and BCL. An overall increase resulted from pre- to post-test and/or follow-up. Parents' BCL changed significantly stronger in the combined training than in the control group. Parents of preterm and full-term children benefitted equally from basic and combined training. The combined training enhanced BCL among parents of full-term and preterm children the most. If such training also yields improvement on the behavioural level, this finding will advance preterm aftercare.

Local Validation Study for NutricheQ Tool in Lebanon

Background: Globally, there is a trend towards consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods leading to dietary imbalances in toddlers. Nutrient deficiencies are associated with the risk of obesity and other health risks. NutricheQ is an 18-item questionnaire that can quickly identify these risks based on dietary patterns in healthy toddlers. Objectives: This study aimed to validate the NutricheQ tool, describe the dietary intake of toddlers and classify them into risk groups. Methods: This was a national, multi-center, observational, validation study conducted at 21 medical centers in Lebanon. Data was collected from NutricheQ administered to the parents of toddlers during a single outpatient visit, and food diary filled by parents during a 4-day follow-up. The validation process of NutricheQ was done using Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation, ANOVA and ANCOVA. The accuracy of NutricheQ in the Identifying categories of nutritional risk was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. All analyses were performed using IBM-SPSS version 24 and P value of ≤ 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Of the 487 toddlers enrolled, 467 had full data on NutricheQ and food diary data was available for 247 only. Majority of toddlers in Lebanon (80% - 88%) were categorized in the moderate or low-risk groups of dietary intake indicating good eating habits. There was a significant positive association between the total NutricheQ score and both, age (r = 0.11, P = 0.021) and BMI Z-score (r = 0.11, P = 0.021). ROC fitting showed a very low discriminatory ability of the scores to correctly classify toddlers into the high-risk group based on their BMI Z-score. Significant positive correlation was obtained between the NutricheQ total score and exchangeable fat and meat with high fat, in the food diaries (R = 0.170, P = 0.045), indicating risk. Also, there was a negative association between the total NutricheQ score and soluble and insoluble fiber (Rs = 0.181, P = 0.004). Conclusions: Results from this study showed that NutricheQ has reasonable validity in the Lebanese context to assess the dietary quality of toddlers in Lebanon and in identifying those at increased nutritional risk.

What's the fuss about? Parent presentations of fussy eating to a parenting support helpline.

To characterise parent presentations of fussy eating and mealtime interactions at a point of crisis, through analyses of real-time recordings of calls to a parenting helpline. Qualitative analysis included an inductive thematic approach to examine clinical parent presentations of fussy eating and derive underlying themes relating to mealtime interactions. Calls made to the Child Health Line regarding feeding concerns were recorded and transcribed verbatim. From a corpus of 723 calls made during a 4-week period in 2009, twelve were from parents of children aged 6-48 months. Parents of infants (≤12 months, n 6) presented feeding concerns as learning challenges in the process of transitioning from a milk-based to a solid-based diet, while parents of toddlers (13-48 months, n 6) presented emotional accounts of feeding as an intractable problem. Parents presented their child's eating behaviour as a battle (conflict), in which their children's agency over limited intake and variety of foods (child control) was constructed as 'bad' or 'wrong'. Escalating parent anxiety (parent concern) had evoked parent non-responsive feeding practices or provision of foods the child preferred. Real-time descriptions of young children's fussy eating at a time of crisis that initiated parents' call for help have captured the highly charged emotional underpinnings of mealtime interactions associated with fussy eating. Importantly, they show the child's emerging assertion of food autonomy can escalate parents' emotional distress that, in the short term, initiates non-responsive feeding practices. The current study identifies the importance of educational and emotional support for parents across the period of introducing solids.

Touchscreen Device Usage in Infants and Toddlers and its Correlations with Cognitive Development

Background: The 2011 AAP policy (which predated the rising use of “new media” such as smart phones and tablets) discouraged the use of electronic media by children younger than age 2 citing potential adverse developmental effects and lack of evidence of educational benefit. The new 2013 AAP policy recognizes “important positive and pro-social effects of media use” but does not address children ages 0-3. The relationship between touchscreen device usage (TDU) and cognitive development of children younger than 3 years has yet to be studied. Objectives: 1) To assess touchscreen device usage in infants and toddlers. 2) To identify association between TDU and cognitive development. Design/methods: A questionnaire was given to parents of high-risk infants and toddlers to assess touchscreen device usage. Results were paired to the child's Cognitive Adaptive Test/Clinical Linguistic Auditory Milestone Scale (CAT/CLAMS) development quotient (DQ) scores. Bivariate associations were examined using a two-sample t-test. Results: Of 65 families, 63 (97%) reported owning a touchscreen device (TSD). Of these, 44 (70%) reported TDU by a child of age <3 years. The mean chronological age of children who did and did not use a TSD was significantly different (17.4 ± 9.2 months vs. 9.4 ± 5.9 months, p<0.001). Mean age at initial TDU was 11.2 ± 7.6 months, and daily TDU ranged from 1-240 minutes with a median of 17.5 minutes. The most common forms of TDU reported were: watching children's “educational shows (30%), using educational applications (26%), and pressing buttons on the screen aimlessly (28%). 60% of parents selected “educational benefits” of TDU as a reason for child TDU. 57% believed “other children” have higher TDU. There was no significant difference in CAT/CLAMS DQs between children with and without TDU (CAT 99.6 ± 19.5 vs. 103.4 ± 19.8; CLAMS 104.0 ± 24.0 vs. 113.5 ± 26.2). Children who played “non-educational games” during TDU had lower CLAMS DQs than those who did not (86.5 ± 34.2 vs. 106.7 ± 21.4; p=0.054). Conclusion: The majority of the families in this study allowed their children to use touch screen devices with a mean age of initial play below a year of age. Although the majority of surveyed parents reported they believed TDU had educational benefits, developmental scores showed no significant difference between children with and without TDU. Children who played non-educational games had lower receptive and expressive language scores compared to children who engaged in other types of TDU. Although our results do not imply a causal relationship, parents should be encouraged to restrict TDU for children under the age of three as no educational benefits were noted.

Positive Parenting: Babies and Toddlers Group-Based Parental Interventions

Early childhood development is increasingly recognized as a key public issue. Parenting interventions form an important evidence-based strategy to foster infant-toddler cognitive and language skills, motor and socio-emotional development and adaptive behavior. This systematic review investigated the effectiveness of group-based parenting interventions focused on families with children about 0-2 years old, living in vulnerable populations. As well as children development assessments, parenting skills, attitudes and knowledge were examined as outcomes. A range of databases were systematically searched and randomized trials and quasi-experimental approaches included. Fourteen studies with 4,082 parents of babies and toddlers, in nine countries, reported findings which favored interventions on a range of parenting measures and children outcomes, though some studies show mixed results. There is a great heterogeneity in terms of the length of the intervention, the qualifications requires for the instructors and the program components that accompany the group intervention. Thus, it is crucial to assess the cost of each intervention to evaluate the feasibility of its implementation in a developing country with scarce resources. Most of the studies included lacked this cost analysis.

O aspektach wychowania wielojęzycznych dzieci przez pryzmat kolejności urodzenia (perspektywa rodziców)

It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber those that are monolingual in the world’s population, which renders the research into different aspects of multilingualism particularly worthwhile. The present paper wishes to address the topic of raising multilingual children in relation to their order of birth into the family. Parents, being crucial agents of primary socialization, play undoubtedly a decisive role in organizing the early multilingual development of their offspring and the variables of family size (two children or more) and birth order of the children seem to be of great importance. The most important differences, facilitating elements, difficulties and challenges, voiced by parents of multilingual toddlers and teenagers, including changes in parental attitude, implementation of new strategies, factor of experience and accumulated resources, position and function of the first-born, and others, were illustrated and discussed. The findings of the study may be of theoretical interest to linguists, and of practical interest to parents showing curiosity or concern about growing multilingual family.

From cars to bikes \u2013 the feasibility and effect of using e-bikes, longtail bikes and traditional bikes for transportation among parents of children attending kindergarten: design of a randomized cross-over trial

BackgroundThe present study aims to increase bicycling and level of physical activity (PA), and thereby promote health in parents of toddlers, by giving access to different bicycle types. There is a need for greater understanding of e-bikes and their role in the transportation network, and further effects on PA levels and health. Moreover, longtail bikes could meet certain practical needs not fulfilled by e-bikes or traditional bikes, hence increased knowledge regarding their feasibility should be obtained. No previous studies have investigated whether providing an e-bike or a longtail bike over an extended period in a sample of parents of toddlers influence objectively assessed amount of bicycling and total PA level, transportation habits, cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition and blood pressure.MethodsA randomized cross-over trial will be performed, entailing that participants in the intervention group (n = 18) complete the following intervention arms in random order: (i) three months access to an e-bicycle with trailer for child transportation (n = 6), (ii) three months access to a longtail bicycle (n = 6), and (iii) three months access to a regular bicycle with trailer (n = 6), in total nine months. Also, a control group (n = 18) maintaining usual transportation and PA habits will be included. A convenience sample consisting of 36 parents of toddlers residing in Kristiansand municipality, Southern Norway, will be recruited. Total amount of bicycling (distance and time), total level of PA, and transportation habits will be measured at baseline and in connection to each intervention arm. Cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition and blood pressure will be measured at baseline and post-intervention. Main outcome will be bicycling distance and time spent cycling.DiscussionNew knowledge relevant for the timely issues of public health and environmental sustainability will be provided among parents of toddlers, representing a target group of greatest importance. There is a call for research on the influence of e-bikes and longtail bikes on travel behavior and PA levels, and whether voluntary cycling could improve health. If the present study reveals promising results, it should be replicated in larger and more representative samples. Eventually, inclusion in national public health policies should be considered.Trial registrationID NCT03131518, made public 26.04.2017.

Co-Parenting for Successful Kids: Impacts and Implications

We examined the impacts of the Co-Parenting for Successful Kids program offered by University of Nebraska Extension. Using a sample of 2,622 parents who participated in the program in 2015, we measured their knowledge change and ability to perform cooperative coparenting behaviors. Results suggest that the program effectively improved participants' coparenting knowledge and ability to use behaviors such as understanding and supporting children in developmentally appropriate ways, enhancing communication skills, and developing parenting plans. In examining group differences, we found that parents of infants and toddlers benefited the most from the program. Suggestions on program development and evaluation are discussed.

Developmentally Focused Cognitive Case Conceptualization for Toddlers and Preschoolers With Posttraumatic Symptoms Following a Medical Trauma

There is growing evidence that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective method for treating posttraumatic stress in toddlers and preschoolers. However, implementing CBT in this population requires cognitive case conceptualization (CCC) that incorporates evidence-based methods to assess factors contributing to onset and maintenance of presenting problems and to guide treatment selection in a developmentally appropriate manner. The present article presents a developmentally focused model of CCC (DCCC) for the assessment and treatment of toddlers and preschoolers. The model elaborates on the relational context of posttraumatic symptomatology, and emphasizes the cognitive mechanisms within the toddler–parent relations matrix. A case conceptualization example illustrates the use of DCCC with a toddler who experienced a medical trauma followed by a brief description of the treatment and its outcomes. Therapists working with toddlers and preschoolers may find the DCCC model an appropriate guiding map t...

Development and Relative Validity of a Food Frequency Questionnaire to Assess Intakes of Total and Free Sugars in Australian Toddlers.

Background: Dental research into early childhood caries is hindered by a lack of suitable dietary assessment tools that have been developed and validated for the population and outcomes of interest. The aim of this study was to develop and investigate the relative validity and reproducibility of the Study of Mothers’ and Infants’ Life Events Food Frequency Questionnaire (SMILE-FFQ), to assess the total and free sugars intakes of Australian toddlers. Methods: The SMILE-FFQ was designed to capture the leading dietary contributors to dental caries risk in toddlers aged 18–30 months via a proxy report. Ninety-five parents of Australian toddlers completed the questionnaire online before and after providing three 24-h recalls (24HR), collected on non-consecutive days using the multipass method. Total and free sugars were compared between the two SMILE-FFQ administrations and between each SMILE-FFQ and the 24HR using multiple statistical tests and standardised validity criteria. Correlation (Pearson), mean difference (Wilcoxon rank test) and Bland Altman analyses were conducted to compare absolute values, with cross-classification (Chi-Square and Weighted Kappa) used to compare agreement across tertiles. Results: All reproducibility tests showed good agreement except weighted kappa, which showed acceptable agreement. Relative validity tests revealed a mix of good and acceptable agreement, with total sugars performing better at the individual level than free sugars. Compared to the 24HR, the SMILE-FFQ tended to underestimate absolute values at lower levels and overestimate them at higher levels. Conclusions: The combined findings of the various tests indicate that the SMILE-FFQ performs comparably to the 24HR for assessing both total and free sugars among individuals, is most effective for ranking participants rather than determining absolute intakes, and is therefore suitable for use in observational studies of Australian toddlers.

Psychometric properties of the Parental Feeding Behaviours Questionnaire for Indonesian parents of young children.

The objective of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Parental Feeding Behaviours Questionnaire (PFBQ) to measure feeding behaviours of Indonesian parents of toddlers (young children). A total of 696 parents of toddlers were obtained by convenience sampling during September 2013 to April 2014. To validate the PFBQ, confirmatory factor analysis and the contrasted group technique were conducted. Reliability of this instrument was examined by construct reliability and test-retest reliability. Results showed that the regression coefficients of all 56 indicators were statistically significant (P < 0.001). The contrasted group technique showed significantly different parental feeding behaviours between parents of well-nourished and malnourished toddlers (P = 0.047). The test-retest reliability of the PFBQ was acceptable (Pearson correlation = 0.644), and the construct reliability ranged from 0.88 to 0.96. The PFBQ is a valid and reliable instrument; however, more studies are required to identify acceptable tools to measure more culturally diverse range of parental feeding behaviours.

Social and Instrumental Interaction Between Parents and Their Toddlers With Autism: A Qualitative Analysis

A qualitative study of three parents and their toddlers with autism was conducted to investigate the communicative functions underlying parent–toddler interactions and how the instrumental or social nature of one partner’s actions influenced the other’s engagement. Parent–child interaction videos collected from a separate intervention study were transcribed with thick description, coded for literal and inferential meaning by independent coders, and analyzed for emergent themes following an iterative process of code categorization. Themes converged around the partner as instrument, attempted but missed social connections, and congruent social engagement. A complementary interactional sequential analysis revealed that communicative functions of initiating partners were largely mirrored in their partners’ responding actions, suggesting that actively supporting parents to interact with their toddlers socially, rather than prescriptively or instrumentally, may be a potent intervention strategy to address the core social communication challenge in autism during the formative early developmental period.

A scoping review of evidence-based interventions available to parents of maltreated children ages 0-5 involved with child welfare services

Parents referred to child welfare services for child maltreatment often struggle against chronic risk factors including violence, substance abuse, mental health concerns, and poverty, which impinge upon their ability to be sensitive caregivers. The first line of intervention within the child welfare context is to modify parenting behavior. This scoping review comprehensively surveyed all available literature to map the extent and range of research activity around the types of interventions available within a child welfare context to parents of infants and toddlers (0–5 years of age), to identify the facilitators and/or barriers to the uptake of interventions, and to check that interventions match the risk factors faced by parents. This scoping review engaged in stringent screening of studies based upon inclusion/exclusion criteria. Sixty-five articles involving forty-two interventions met inclusion criteria. Interventions generally aimed to improve parenting practices, the relationship between parent and child, and/or attachment security, along with reducing child abuse and/or neglect. A notable finding of this scoping review is that at present, interventions for parents of children ages 0–5 involved with the child welfare system are most frequently measured via case study and quasi-experimental designs, with randomized control trials making up 26.2% of included study designs.

Emotion Regulation, Harsh Parenting, and Teacher Sensitivity Among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Toddlers in Child Care

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: This study examined the transactional nature of harsh parenting and emotion regulation across toddlerhood, including the moderating role of teacher sensitivity in child care. Secondary data analyses were conducted with a subsample of families from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project who participated in center-based child care. Autoregressive cross-lagged path models were used to examine stability and transactional associations between observations of mothers’ harsh parenting behaviors and observers’ ratings of toddler emotion regulation at 14, 24, and 36 months. Teacher sensitivity was observed in children’s child care classrooms and was hypothesized to attenuate the negative impact of harsh parenting on subsequent emotion regulation. Results suggested that poorer emotion regulation and increased harsh parenting at 14 months were particularly salient in setting the stage for worse parent and toddler outcomes at 36 months. Teacher sensitivity was not a significant protective factor. Practice or Policy: Results are discussed in terms of the importance of early parent–toddler interactions that match the developing regulatory needs of young toddlers as well as considering how teacher sensitivity is conceptualized and measured so programs such as Early Head Start can best meet the needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents and toddlers.

ANALISIS FAKTOR RISIKO PEMBERIAN ASI DAN VENTILASI KAMAR TERHADAP KEJADIAN PNEUMONIA BALITA

Pneumonia is still a major cause of infant mortality in the world amounted to 18% of infant mortality caused by pneumonia, nor in Indonesia amounted to 13% of infant mortality contributed by pneumonia and pneumonia incidence was highest in children aged 1–4 years. Some of the possible interventions to reduce the incidence of pneumonia is exclusive breastfeeding, immunization that associated with pneumonia, and reduce air pollution in the house. This type of research is an analytic observational with case control design. Case population is all toddlers diagnosed with pneumonia in the August to December 2015 period, while the control population is all children who are diagnosed does not pneumonia in the period. The method used for this research is total sampling which resulted of 40 toddlers. The independent variables used were a history of exclusive breastfeeding and the room ventilation. The results of this study are exclusive breastfeeding (OR = 7.407) and the room ventilation (OR = 13.5) at risk for pneumonia. Based on these results the government must improve the dissemination of exclusive breastfeeding, one of them with advertising. Parents of toddlers must improve air circulation in the room by improving size of ventilation or manipulate the air condition of toddler room to better circulation, of one of them by giving the fan and blower installation in toddler rooms.Keywords:exclusive breastfeeding, risk factor, room ventilation, toddler pneumonia.

A Toddler Parenting Intervention in Primary Care for Caregivers With Depression Symptoms.

Caregiver depression impacts parenting behaviors and has deleterious effects on child behavior. Evidence-based interventions to address parenting have not been adapted for use with depressed caregivers in pediatric primary care settings. Our study examined the feasibility and explored outcomes of an evidence-based parenting program implemented in primary care and adapted for caregivers with depressive symptoms caring for toddlers. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with a wait-list control. Participants were caregivers who screened positive for depressive symptoms in pediatric settings with a toddler. Our study was implemented from July 2011 to June 2012. We adapted the Incredible Years Parents, Babies and Toddlers program with the addition of depression psychoeducation (12 weekly sessions), and assessed caregivers at baseline and immediately post-intervention. We assessed participation rates, depressive symptoms, parenting discipline practices, social support, and parenting stress. Our results revealed that 32 caregivers participating in the intervention group had significantly greater improvement in self-reported parenting discipline practices compared to the 29 wait-list control group caregivers. We found no differences between groups in depressive symptoms, social support, or parenting stress. Our study demonstrated that the average attendance was poor (mean attendance=3.7 sessions). We adapted an evidence-based parenting intervention for caregivers with depressive symptoms and toddlers in primary care; however, participation was challenging. Alternative intervention strategies are needed to reach and retain low-income caregivers with depression symptoms as they face multiple barriers to participation in groups within center-based services. Trial Registration Clinical Trials.gov identifier NCT01464619.

Investigating the Preliminary Effects of Little Foodies: A Health Promotion Program for Parents of Toddlers

Investigating the Preliminary Effects of Little Foodies: A Health Promotion Program for Parents of Toddlers

‘She didn’t have a word of English; we didn’t have a word of Vietnamese’: Exploring parent experiences of communication with toddlers who were adopted internationally

The purpose of this study was to explore in detail parents’ experiences of communicating with toddlers who were adopted internationally. Often, there is a mismatch between parents and children in terms of language, particularly in the early post-adoption period. There is a gap in the literature regarding parent experiences of this phase of their lives. Changing patterns in international adoption have led to an increase in adoptions of toddlers and older children. Due to institutional care, these toddlers and older children often lack exposure to their native language which may lead to language delay. When they are brought home, they are immersed in English. As well beginning to acquire English, these children are also forming an attachment with their parents. While research has investigated speech and language skills in this population, there is a lack of literature exploring the experiences of parents regarding communicating with toddlers who are adopted internationally in the early months following adoption.This is a qualitative study where interviews and thematic analysis were used to explore the experiences of 12 parents of 12 toddlers who were adopted internationally.Three main themes: ‘Getting ready’, ‘Support’, and ‘Challenges’ emerged from the data. The results highlight the ways in which adoptive parents facilitated communication with their toddlers, supporting their acquisition of English. The results also reveal gaps in service provision for this population. Results also illustrate the proactive way in which parents dealt with challenges, even in the presence of limited support services. Gaps in service provision where intense focus pre-adoption was followed by a lack of support post-adoption were identified by parents. The dual needs of developing attachment and common language development strategies were also described by parents.The study demonstrates the need for pre- and post-adoptive speech and language services for this client group. It highlights the importance of the role of speech and language pathology in working with parents of toddlers and children who were adopted internationally. This role is in health promotion and prevention, as well as providing a service to this population as part of a multidisciplinary team, post-adoption.