Research tells us that the simplest of playful interactions between parent and child can help build babies’ brains. But we know parenting isn’t easy, and we know how hard it can be for parents to build these interactions into daily routines – especially when things are challenging. By finding ways to enhance these interactions we can improve outcomes for young children.

This project, called Baby talk for York was developed as part of our fairer start local programme. We aimed to explore how digital technologies and social media could be combined with the latest learning from behavioural science to help parents and carers embed playful activities in their day-to-day routines with their children. We drew on activities in the Look Say Sing Play resource developed by NSPCC.

We learned about parents’ lived experience of parenthood, revealing their needs, challenges, and motivations in their life. Later in the project, we designed three digital prototype solutions to help motivate and enable parents to engage with Look Say Sing Play content, developing the prototype (or junking it) based on user feedback.

Our people-centred approach was spread across three sprints of work. It was focused on designing for a specific priority group as this tends to result in a better solution not only for a particular group, but for others too.

Early Talk for York is an approach to improve speech, language and communication of children aged 0 to 5 years which has been developed across York's early years partnership. Look Say Sing Play is an instrumental part of the aged 0 to 2 element of this programme.

City of York Council was keen to further extend the reach of the 0 to 2 component of this work as this was less well developed. There was a particular focus on parents aged under 25 years, as City of York Council has found that this demographic group is less likely to engage with services.

Our interactions with parents led to some key insights, shedding light on trust issues, fears, and judgement. A prevalent theme was the low trust among parents, influenced by challenging life experiences and negative perceptions of the system. Younger parents, in particular, grappled with feelings of judgement, low self-esteem, and a defensive mindset, seeking autonomy in parenting.

Of the three prototypes we developed, the Weekly Adventure, which enabled parents to set an intention and plan to get out of the house with tips for parent and child interactions, was favoured by all participating parents and stood out as the most popular developed prototype. It also informed parents about activities in their local area for free or low cost and enabled them to upload photos and a journal of their adventures as well as seeing their weekly or monthly going out ‘streaks’.

Insights that led to the development of this prototype were:

1. Parents' well-being and their children's happiness improve when they leave the house together.
2. Getting out of the house, even for a short walk, helps parents create structure in their day.
3. Without a planned activity, daily routines can deteriorate.
4. Setting the intention to go out in advance can encourage parents to do so.

In the initial prototype, we explored whether setting an intention to leave the house sufficed as support for parents. However, parents made it clear that additional features were crucial, leading to the highest degree of active co-design. These features included lists of essentials for outings and the integration of Look Say Sing Play tips into the solution, offering a tagged list of activities to do while out and about with their child.

Following this project, Nesta is working with City of York Council to share the research findings with parents who participated in the project, as well as local service providers. The learning from the project will inform local service development in York, as well as Nesta’s work on digital parenting interventions.

The fairer start team are now exploring opportunities to apply these rich insights to the further development and testing of a scalable digital parenting intervention.