Promoting Mother-Infant Book sharing in Khayelitsha, South Africa

ISRCTN	ISRCTN39953901
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN39953901
Protocol serial number	MIBSA1
Sponsor	University of Reading (UK)
Funders	The DG Murray Trust (South Africa), Constable & Robinson Publishing (UK), The Felix Foundation (USA)

Submission date: 23/07/2012
Registration date: 26/07/2012
Last edited: 08/04/2016

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Mental and Behavioural Disorders

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Plain English summary of protocol

Background and study aims
It is clear that children in South Africa are struggling at school and are failing to achieve good grades, especially in reading. We know from studies in other countries, that training mothers how to share books with their babies improves infants' language and literacy. This study tests whether mothers in Khayelitsha can be trained in good book sharing practices and whether this has an impact on their babies language and attention skills. As secondary aims, we will investigate whether such training impacts childrens emotion recognition abilities and the quality of mothers general interactive behaviours.

Who can participate?
Mothers resident in the Khayelitsha area who have a baby aged 14 to 16 months old.

What does the study involve?
Participants will attend training sessions at our research centre on a weekly basis over the course of 8 weeks. They will receive both group lectures and individual sessions with our trainers. They will also be asked to attend an assessment session before starting the training and another immediately after the last training session.

What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
There are considerable benefits anticipated both for mother and for child: children's expressive and receptive vocabulary, attention, and emotion recognition is expected to improve while mothers are expected to become more sensitive, responsive, and attuned to their infants. There are no risks associated with participation in this study.

Where is the study run from?
At our research centre at Grassroots Football in Khayelitsha

When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
July 2012 to May 2013

Who is funding the study?
The study is funded by the DG Murray Trust, Constable & Robinson Publishing, and the Felix Foundation.

Who is the main contact?
Mr Zahir Vally
zvally@gmail.com

Contact information

Prof Peter Cooper
Scientific

University of Reading
Winnicott Research Unit
Reading
RG6 6AL
United Kingdom

Study information

Primary study design	Interventional
Study design	Randomized controlled trial
Secondary study design	Randomised controlled trial
Study type	Participant information sheet
Scientific title	Promoting Mother-Infant Book sharing: a randomized controlled trial in Khayelitsha, South Africa
Study acronym	MIBSA
Study objectives	A study will be conducted to determine the efficacy of a program to train mothers in Khayelitsha in sharing books with their infants. We hypothesize that training mothers in good book sharing practices will promote their babies' language development, improve infant attention, as well as infant emotion recognition. Furthermore, we hypothesize that training mothers in Khayelitsha in good book-sharing practices with their infants will improve the general quality of maternal interactive behaviours.
Ethics approval(s)	1. University Research Ethics Committee, School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK, 14/03/2012, ref: 2012/007/PC 2. Stellenbosch University Research Ethics Committee, South Africa, May 2013, ref: S12/04/088
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied	Infant cognitive development
Intervention	There will be two groups: an index group who will receive a book sharing training program and a waitlist control group. The intervention involves weekly training sessions run over 8 weeks.
Intervention type	Behavioural
Primary outcome measure(s)	1. Child language (i.e. vocabulary and comprehension) assessed as a count at the end of the training phase. 2. Infant attention assessed by two means: 2.1. The longest bout of attention and quality of attention measured during a 5 minute segment of free play and book-sharing 2.2. The longest bout of sustained attention during a computerized vigilance task
Key secondary outcome measure(s)	1. Maternal book-sharing practices (i.e. ratings of video-taped episodes of book sharing for maternal sensitivity and facilitation, and pointing, repetitions, and elaborations) assessed as ordinal variables (and, where appropriate, counts) at the end of the training phase. 2. Maternal general interactive behaviours (i.e. ratings of video-taped episodes of joint play for sensitivity, facilitation, and reciprocity) assessed as ordinal variables at the end of the training phase. 3. Infant emotion recognition (i.e. a count of the number of correct child emotions identified (i.e. happy, sad, angry, and fearful).
Completion date	30/06/2013

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	Patient
Age group	Adult
Sex	All
Target sample size at registration	100
Key inclusion criteria	1. Able (in the investigators opinion) and willing to comply with all study requirements 2. Primary caregiver is able to attend sessions this may be the mother, father, grandparent, aunt, or other carer 3. Mother is willing and able to give informed consent for participation in the study 4. Mother/ primary caregiver, aged 16 years or above 5 Infant is aged 14, 15, or 16 months old at the time of the first assessment 6. Resident in one of the four catchment areas
Key exclusion criteria	1. Children which have significant physical or established intellectual impairment 2. Carers suffering from a significant physical or psychiatric condition which would impair their ability to engage in the program
Date of first enrolment	30/07/2012
Date of final enrolment	30/06/2013

Locations

Countries of recruitment

United Kingdom
England
South Africa

Study participating centre

University of Reading

Reading
RG6 6AL
United Kingdom

Results and Publications

Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share	No
IPD sharing plan summary	Not provided at time of registration
IPD sharing plan

Study outputs

Output type	Details	Date created	Date added	Peer reviewed?	Patient-facing?
Results article	results	01/08/2015		Yes	No
Participant information sheet	Participant information sheet	11/11/2025	11/11/2025	No	Yes

Editorial Notes

08/04/2016: Publication reference added.