Early Literacy Research Library (ELRL) - Article

Why reading matters. The development of a read-a-thon for neonatal intensive care units to encourage neonatal exposure to language

Fraser, A., Griffiths, N., & Webb, A. (2023). Why reading matters. The development of a read-a-thon for neonatal intensive care units to encourage neonatal exposure to language. Journal of Neonatal Nursing.,

Access: Institutional Access

Publication year

2023

study description

Cross-Sectional; Quality Improvement

core topic(s)

Early Literacy , Early Relational Health , Pediatric Primary Care , Shared Reading

Population Characteristics

International , Medical Providers

Exposures, Outcomes, Other

Clinic-Based Programs and Interventions , NICU Read-a-Thon , Parent-Provider Relationships/Interactions

objectives

The specific aim of this quality improvement project was to determine if the provision of resources during a local read-a-thon initiative improved parental understanding of the benefits of reading to their baby and increased the likelihood of parental language exposure in the NICU

exposure

NICU Read-a-Thon

outcomes evaluated

Parent perceptions both pre and post intervention of the read-a-thon initiative and the provision of reading resources to parents

setting

Intensive care unit in a major metropolitan hospital in Australia

methods

A cross sectional anonymous electronic survey design was utilised to explore parent perceptions both pre and post intervention of the read-a-thon initiative and the provision of reading resources to parents

sample size

N=21 parents (pre interventions) N=24 parents (post interventions)

measures

A multidisciplinary team of three neonatal nurses and two allied health care professionals experienced in developing surveys developed and tested a survey for contextual relevance, functionality, and usability. The survey consisted of nine questions, the questions were formatted as yes/no responses or multiple choice responses with a capacity for free text answers on three of the questions


results

Through this initiative, parental engagement in reading aloud to their baby in the first week of life doubled. Barriers to parental reading aloud to an infant in the NICU were identified including the lack of privacy and being able to hold their baby during reading.

conclusions

Providing local parent resources and facilitating an annual read-a-thon encouraging reading from birth has more than doubled the instances of reading to baby within the first week of life. Parents benefit from support and encouragement to read to their baby, however there are some enabling and disabling factors which NICUs should consider.

limitations

Non-English speaking background parents were not surveyed due to the limitations of the survey platform. Illiterate parents were not surveyed. The intervention was not linked to infant developmental short- and long-term developmental outcomes, limiting the effectiveness to parent perceptions only.

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