Princess Kate’s work in the early years received a key boost this morning, as a key project looking at how babies interact with their environment expanded.
On Friday, the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood – set up by Kate in June 2021 – announced an expansion of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB) trial to eight more NHS sites across the UK this year.
The centre funded the first phase of the trial last year, which reported “overwhelmingly” positive results.
The Princess saw the ADBB being used during an official visit to Copenhagen in 2022 and was so impressed by it that she started to explore whether it could be introduced in the UK. After her input, the Centre for Early Childhood then worked with the iHV and Oxford University to test it in this country.
Health visitors use the tool, which uses indicators such as facial expressions and activity levels to understand how well babies are bonding with their parents, during routine checks to promote infant wellbeing.
The ADBB tool focuses on a baby’s social behaviours such as eye contact, facial expression, vocalisation, and activity levels to help practitioners and families better understand the ways babies express their feelings.
Providing support at this critical time, when babies’ brains are developing faster than at any other time in their lives, can have a life-long impact.
Christian Guy, Executive Director of The Centre for Early Childhood, said: “We know that warm, loving, responsive interactions with those closest to them during the earliest weeks and months of a baby’s life are crucial in promoting positive brain development.
“Health visitors do such a vital job in our communities. I am delighted that we are now able to give more teams across the UK the support they need to help thousands of families to better understand their babies and build nurturing relationships, laying the strongest possible foundations for all that is to come in the years that follow.”
MORE FOLLOWS…
