Below you will find some of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for families involved in the Language in Little Ones study and for those wanting to learn more about our work.
If you don't find your question listed below, please contact us and we'll be happy to provide more details for you.
FAQS
- How can my child and I register to participate in the study?
- What is the eligibility criteria to participate in the study
- Why is my contribution important?
- How many sessions do my family have to participate in?
- What does the home visit involve?
- How do I pick a recording day?
- What do I have to do on the recording day?
- Do the researchers listen to any of audio from our recording day?
- What do I do if my child won’t wear the t-shirt on our recording day?
- What benefits will I gain from participating in the study?
- When do you schedule sessions?
- What if I need to reschedule my appointment?
- Have your processes changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?
- What if I can't complete a home visit or recording day?
1. How can my child and I register to participate in the study?
We have now finished recruiting families for the Language in Little Ones study, so unfortunately families are no longer able to join the study.
If you would still like to find our more information about the LiLO study or if there are any other opportunities to be involved in research, feel free to contact the Study Manager, Mary Brushe, via email.
2. What is the eligibility criteria to participate in the study?
- English is the main language spoken in the home
- Located in Adelaide, South Australia; Bunbury, Western Australia; or Gold Coast, Queensland
- Mother’s highest level of completed education either: completed Year 12 or less OR completed a university degree
- No multiple births (e.g. twins)
- Child born at 37+ weeks gestation
- Child does not have a diagnosed cause of language impairment (e.g. hearing impairment, identified developmental disorder)
Baby Cohort (started in 2017):
Child born between 1st July 2016 – December 2017. Recruitment for this cohort has finished.
Toddler Cohort (started in 2018):
Child born between 1st of July 2015 – 30th of April 2016 for families in South Australia. For families in Western Australia and Queensland the child needs to be born between 1st of July 2015 – 30th of June 2016. Recruitment for this cohort has also finished.
3. Why is my contribution important?
You will be providing a significant contribution to our understanding of how the quality and quantity of parent and child talk in the early years impacts on children’s later outcomes. Through this study we hope to understand the optimal amount of parent talk needed in order to support all domains of development in the first 5 years of a child’s life. This will then inform decision making around interventions to improve overall levels of child health and development for Australian children.
4. How many sessions do my family have to participate in?
- Baby Cohort: Your first session will occur within 2 weeks of your child turning 6 months old (or the nearest six month milestone after joining the study). A research assistant will then visit you once every 6 months until your child's first year of school.
- Toddler Cohort: Your first session will occur within 2 weeks of your child turning 3 years of age (or the nearest six month milestone after joining the study). A research assistant will then visit you once every six months until your child's first year of school.
Note: Families can join the study even if they have missed some waves of data collection. For instance, if you join the study for the Toddler Cohort when your child is 3.5 years you will simply miss the visits at the early ages.
5. What does the home visit involve?
Every 6 months, a research assistant will visit you at a time that is convenient to you, between Monday-Friday 8am-6pm, to provide you with the LENA recording device, specialised LENA clothing, instructions for using the device, questionnaires, and to answer any questions that you may have. You will then pick a day within the next week to be your ‘recording day’. The research assistant will also organise a day after your recording day has been completed to then be able to collect the items and questionnaires. LENA recordings day are not completed at the visits when your child is 5 and 5.5 years old.
At each visit, the research assistant will complete a set of standard questionnaires with you about your family, the home environment, parenting styles, childcare arrangements and preschool or playgroup attendance with you. At certain visits we will undertake a short language assessment with you or your child and complete a developmental checklist.
Most visits will not take longer than one hour, with some visits taking up to 90minutes when a language assessment is undertaken but we will advise you when these occur. When research assistants return to pick up the LENA equipment, this should take no longer than 10minutes whereby we will provide you with your reimbursement and feedback on any assessments that were undertaken.
6. How do I pick a recording day?
The recording day needs to be a day within two weeks following the research assistants dropping off the equipment to your home. Try to pick a day to record that reflects (as closely as possible) a typical day for your child. This means avoiding days where there may be any special, out-of-the-ordinary events occurring (e.g. birthday parties, public events or sporting games). You don’t need to pick the perfect day or make any special arrangements for your recording day – just pick a typical day and continue your usual activities as normal. The only restriction is that the recording day cannot be a day when your child is attending childcare or preschool or when they are sick.
We understand that often things come up for families and they might need longer than two weeks to find a recording day. We can be very flexible with families and work around their schedule and commitments.
7. What do I have to do on the recording day?
When your child wakes up in the morning, turn the device on and place it in the front pocket of the specially supplied t-shirt. Dress your child in the t-shirt and then continue with your day as normal. You can leave the recording device on all day, except for when your child is bathed, has a nap, or travels in the car. In these situations, we ask that you place the t-shirt with the device still inside and recording as close as possible to the child until the clothing can be put on again. The device will turn itself off after 16hours which signals the end of the recording period. We also ask that you fill in the provided Activity Log throughout the day to make notes of things like naps, car rides, play dates and TV/video time so that we can compare your data with your recording day routine. When the recording day is over, simply place the t-shirt and LENA device back in the pack and leave in a safe place until the research assistant returns to collect it. You do not need to wash any of the clothing as we will do this for you.
8. Do the researchers listen to any of the audio from our recording day?
No, the researchers do not listen to any of the audio captured on the recording day. The LENA equipment works so that it automatically analyses the data through the acoustic properties in the speech signal and simply provides us with the number of words the child spoke and heard throughout the day.
9. What do I do if my child won’t wear the t-shirt on our recording day?
The t-shirts comes in a very limited colour range, based on sizes so unfortunately, we cannot provide a choice in colours for the children to wear. Some tips other families have found useful include:
- Placing the LENA device in the t-shirt pocket before the child sees so they are less inclined to want to take it out.
- Sitting down and explaining to your child that they are getting to participate in a very special project that will help lots of other children around Australia and that involves wearing this t-shirt just for today.
- While we ask that you don’t make any permanent changes to the t-shirt you can put stickers over it or add accessories over the top.
- Let your child wear their favourite top underneath the t-shirt or an open zipped jacket over the top
- If you are really struggling to get them to wear it, you can leave the t-shirt as close as possible to the child at different points throughout the day – this may affect the quality of the recording and we do ask you keep persisting to try and get your child to wear the t-shirt throughout the day. If you have completed your recording day in this way, make sure to let one of our research assistants know.
Always feel free to contact the study manager or designated research assistant on the day if you need extra help.
10. What benefits will I gain from participating in the study?
You will be contributing to our understanding of how language interaction in the early years can impact on children’s later outcomes. You will receive a $10 Coles supermarket voucher as reimbursement for your time at each session. You will also receive a height chart for your child and a magnetic photo frame with our contact details for you to use as you wish. You will be provided feedback on the number of words your child hears and speaks on your recording day and advised the results of any language or developmental assessments. We will also endeavour to keep all families updated on overall results of the study as soon as they become available.
11. When do you schedule sessions?
Sessions will be scheduled between Monday-Friday, 8am-6pm within two weeks of your child’s 6 month milestones. The study manager or a research assistant will contact you in advance to arrange a time to visit you at your home. If you are unable to make an appointment during the designated times the team will work with you to find a suitable time that fits in with the needs of your family.
12. What if I need to reschedule my appointment?
A reminder SMS will be sent to you before any home visit or pick up appointment so if you need to reschedule your session, you can do so by simply responding to the SMS or you can contact the study coordinator on Ph: 08 8207 2181, Mob: 0432 594 131 or via email: lilo@telethonkids.org.au
13. Have your processes changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?
All our staff are equipped with hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes which are used in between and during each visit on all equipped used in the home visits. We are also providing all of our families with the option of completing their ‘home visit’ over the phone or video chat, if they do not want a research assistant coming to their home. We will then leave the LENA equipment in their letter box or post it out to them, depending on what the family would prefer. We also monitor all government regulations and depending on the situation at each location we may mandate all visits be conducted over the phone if families live in high risk areas.
We ask that all families let us know prior to the home visit if anyone in the family is feeling unwell as we will need to either reschedule or conduct the visit via phone. If any of our staff members become unwell they reschedule all visits until their symptoms have disappeared.
We appreciate our families cooperation and understanding during this difficult time.
14. What if I can’t complete a home visit or recording day?
We know that the lives of our families are going to change over the longitudinal study and unexpected events may arise that mean they are unable to participate for some reason. This is completely understandable and families have the option to:
- Delay the visit and we will contact you in a months’ time to see if you have more capacity to participate then.
- Skip this home visit or recording day and we will touch base with them again in another 6 months’ time.
- Withdraw from the study if their circumstances have changed and they no longer feel like they can participate. Families can do this at any time.
We simply ask you let us know which option you would like to pursue when we get in contact with you for your visit. If we don’t hear back from our families after a few attempts at contacting them, we will assume they want to skip this visit and try again in 6 months’ time.