7 minute video of Ireland Lifestart/Growing Child

The Growing Child from Lifestart Foundation on Vimeo.

Since 1971 Growing Child has published and circulated to over six million families in the United States and elsewhere in the world a monthly child newsletter timed to the monthly age of the child.

Since 1995 Growing Child publications have been used in the Lifestart/Growing Child home visit program in Ireland. Recently a five-year study using Growing Child was conducted by Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Lifestart Growing Child program is delivered through monthly visits by a trained family visitor who shares Growing Child age appropriate, evidence-based information on child development.

Over the past six years, the program has been empirically tested across the island of Ireland by Queen's University of Belfast through a fully scientific Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) based on a rigorous experimental design.

Results:

The Lifestart Growing Child program has shown significantly positive effects across a range of domains including:

• Parenting related stress
• Parental knowledge of child development
• Parental efficacy
• Parent-child attachment
• Discipline and boundaries
• Parental mood

The study also found positive effects in child development outcomes among the intervention group including:

• Cognitive development
• Socio-emotional development
• A significant reduction in speech and language referrals

Parents indicated the Key benefits of taking part in the Lifestart Growing Child program included:

• It allayed fears and worries about 'normal' development
• Non-judgmental source of advice and information (complementary to health visiting)
• Non-stigmatizing
• Accessible and available
• Extended benefits to family and friends (sharing knowledge and materials)
• High satisfaction and commitment to the program

Lifestart and Growing Child web sites: