24th January 2025
Thanks to the continued support of The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) is delighted to announce the start of Phase Two of the ADBB study. Following the positive results of the first study, which reported an increase in health visitors’ knowledge and skills in interpreting baby behaviour as a result of training in a new observational tool, this second phase seeks to evaluate the impact of the tool in more sites across the UK. The study will be led by the iHV, in partnership with Professor Jane Barlow at the University of Oxford and Dr Alexandra Deprez, Consultant psychologist and ADBB trainer, and will run until March 2026.
The tool, known internationally as the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB), 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. Phase Two of the study will build on the findings from the first study which sought to explore how acceptable and feasible health visitors found using the baby observation tool (the ADBB, and its shorter modified version, the m-ADBB) during their routine 6-8-week visits to families. If you are interested in the findings from the Phase One ADBB Study, please use the link to the pdf here: https://bit.ly/4a7z2hT.
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.”
The second phase will address a number of recommendations from the first study in the UK context, including:
- The development and implementation of the expansion of the m-ADBB and ADBB training programme within health visiting teams in a number of different sites across the UK.
- The evaluation of the impact of the above expansion on practice, outcomes of referrals, and acceptability to parents.
Alison Morton, Chief Executive of the Institute of Health Visiting said:
“We are delighted to have the continued support from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to deliver the second phase of this exciting programme of work. As we know, babies can’t talk, but there is significant evidence that their early experiences influence their future outcomes.
“The expansion of the use of the modified ADBB tool in a wider range of health visiting services will allow us to consider its future implementation and sustainability, and ensure more families get the right support and babies can thrive.”
Following significant interest from several potential health visiting services, we are pleased to confirm that the following have been selected for participation in Phase Two:
- Ayrshire and Arran Health Board, Scotland
- Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board, Wales
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare
- Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, England
- Northern Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland
- Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust – Doncaster, England
- Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust – North Lincs, England
- South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, England
This grant from The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood will continue to accelerate our work to support health visitors in promoting infant wellbeing and social development, and by enhancing health visitors’ ability to identify infants at risk. We thank The Royal Foundation for their ongoing support.
For more information, please contact [email protected]
