Playtime with Books (PwB) is a digital book-sharing intervention for children aged 10-24 months based on Murray and Cooper’s evidence-based shared picture book intervention, adapted for virtual delivery. The programme aims to promote parental sensitivity and support and reinforce parents’ use of positive book-sharing skills with their young child. It consists of five self-directed online skill sessions and up to three personalised video-feedback support calls provided virtually by practitioners from local early-years services. Facilitators guide parents through the programme, encouraging them to practice new skills and film themselves sharing books with their child. They build a relationship with the parent via a welcome call and have three online calls with the parent to give supportive feedback about their recorded videos.
Our aim was to identify and test improvements to the PwB service so that it works better for delivery partners and families unable to access face-to-face book-sharing programmes. PEDAL, with support from Nesta, delivered PwB in two cycles of delivery across three local authorities. This report shares the analysis and findings from the first cycle of delivery only, as well as interviews and surveys conducted with parents and facilitators.
Understanding parent engagement
We wanted to learn about how parents with children aged 10-24 months engaged with PwB. Specifically, how our target group found the programme: parents with a household income of below £25,000, receiving benefits or an educational attainment level of A-level or under. In particular, we were interested in where they would find out about PwB, what would motivate them to sign up, and how they could access the programme.
We were also interested in learning more about the feasibility and acceptability of the platform for parents and facilitators to ensure it could be successfully delivered on a larger scale. For local authorities, we wanted to assess differences in recruitment and delivery eg, how effective different recruitment strategies were in rural compared to urban areas.
