BIO

My name is Sydney Wald. I am an undergraduate student at Florida State University and originally from Orlando, Florida. I am pursuing a double major in Psychology and Human Development and Family Sciences. I plan on attending graduate school to receive a PhD in Clinical Psychology and become a child psychologist. I have always had a passion for working with kids. The BabyTok project has given me the opportunity to explore my interests in child development and build critical research skills.

BabyTok: A TikTok Intervention to Support Caregivers' Knowledge of Early Communication Development

Abstract

A child’s early language learning begins as soon as they are born. Caregivers hold a critical role in their child’s acquisition of language. Developmental science has indicated poverty as a risk to early language development. There is a need for the elimination of early language disparities in children who face poverty and other economic instabilities. This intervention was aimed to educate caregivers on early language learning in infants through a light-touch social media intervention. The study consisted of a mixed methods design. The experiment investigated whether a social media intervention supported parent knowledge of early communication skills. The participants were caregivers who had a child between 0 and 18 months old. Parent knowledge, self-efficacy and interactional strategies were then examined through caregiver interviews. The findings demonstrated increased parent knowledge, confidence in a parental role, and greater child communication with the application of the social media intervention.

Keywords: Language, Infants, Communication