So Lydia, Miller Erin, Eastwood John
Department of Community Paediatrics, South Western Sydney Local Health District, Liverpool, Australia.
Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, Australia.
JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2021 Aug 31;4(3):e27049. doi: 10.2196/27049.
The early language environment is important for language development and a child's life-course trajectory. Risk factors associated with poor language development outcomes in children include maternal anxiety and depression, low educational attainment, substance misuse, and low socioeconomic status. Language Environment Analysis (LENA) is a wearable technology designed to promote caregivers' engagement in supporting their children's language development. LENA provides quantitative linguistic feedback, which has been shown to improve caregiver language output, thus enhancing a child's language environment. There is limited research on the uptake of this technology by families with developmentally at-risk children.
This qualitative study aims to explore the conditions under which mothers with children at risk of poor developmental outcomes are willing to adopt the use of LENA to monitor and improve caregiver language output.
Using a qualitative interpretive design, semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 mothers. Participants were recruited purposively to select the maximal variation of socioeconomic and ethnodemographic backgrounds. The transcribed interview data were analyzed thematically and interpretatively. Themes were mapped abductively to an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, which included contextual factors for LENA acceptance.
Factors that influenced the intention to use LENA included both technology-specific acceptance factors and contextual factors. Technology acceptance themes included reassurance, feeling overwhelmed, and trust. These themes were mapped to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence. Contextual themes included emergent success and the intrusion of past difficulties. These were mapped to parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk. The theme of building on success described behavioral intention. Mothers were more likely to adopt LENA when the technology was viewed as acceptable, and this was influenced by parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk.
LENA is a technology that is acceptable to mothers with children who are at risk of poor language development outcomes. Further studies are needed to establish LENA's effectiveness as an adjunct to strategies to enrich a child's early language environment.
早期语言环境对语言发展以及儿童的人生轨迹至关重要。与儿童语言发展不良结果相关的风险因素包括母亲的焦虑和抑郁、低教育程度、物质滥用以及低社会经济地位。语言环境分析（LENA）是一种可穿戴技术，旨在促进照顾者参与支持其子女的语言发展。LENA提供定量语言反馈，已证明这种反馈可改善照顾者的语言输出，从而改善儿童的语言环境。对于发育有风险的儿童家庭对该技术的采用情况，研究有限。
本定性研究旨在探讨发育结果不佳风险儿童的母亲愿意采用LENA来监测和改善照顾者语言输出的条件。
采用定性解释性设计，对8位母亲进行了半结构化的深入访谈。有目的地招募参与者，以选择社会经济和种族人口背景的最大差异。对转录的访谈数据进行了主题分析和解释性分析。主题通过归纳法映射到扩展的技术接受与使用统一理论，其中包括LENA接受的情境因素。
影响使用LENA意愿的因素包括特定技术的接受因素和情境因素。技术接受主题包括安心、不知所措和信任。这些主题映射到绩效期望、努力期望和社会影响。情境主题包括意外成功和过去困难的侵扰。这些映射到育儿自我效能感和感知风险。基于成功的主题描述了行为意图。当该技术被认为可接受时，母亲更有可能采用LENA，这受到育儿自我效能感和感知风险的影响。
LENA是一种对于语言发展结果不佳风险儿童的母亲来说可接受的技术。需要进一步研究以确定LENA作为丰富儿童早期语言环境策略辅助手段的有效性。
