TY  - JOUR
AU  - So, Lydia
AU  - Miller, Erin
AU  - Eastwood, John
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/8/31
TI  - Exploring Mothers’ Experience of a Linguistic Feedback Technology for Children at Risk of Poor Language Development: Qualitative Pilot Study
JO  - JMIR Pediatr Parent
SP  - e27049
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
KW  - language development
KW  - technology
KW  - feedback
KW  - socioeconomic factors
AB  - Background: The early language environment is important for language development and a child’s life-course trajectory. Risk factors associated with poor language development outcomes in children include maternal anxiety and depression, low educational attainment, substance misuse, and low socioeconomic status. Language Environment Analysis (LENA) is a wearable technology designed to promote caregivers’ engagement in supporting their children’s language development. LENA provides quantitative linguistic feedback, which has been shown to improve caregiver language output, thus enhancing a child’s language environment. There is limited research on the uptake of this technology by families with developmentally at-risk children. Objective: This qualitative study aims to explore the conditions under which mothers with children at risk of poor developmental outcomes are willing to adopt the use of LENA to monitor and improve caregiver language output. Methods: Using a qualitative interpretive design, semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 mothers. Participants were recruited purposively to select the maximal variation of socioeconomic and ethnodemographic backgrounds. The transcribed interview data were analyzed thematically and interpretatively. Themes were mapped abductively to an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, which included contextual factors for LENA acceptance. Results: Factors that influenced the intention to use LENA included both technology-specific acceptance factors and contextual factors. Technology acceptance themes included reassurance, feeling overwhelmed, and trust. These themes were mapped to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence. Contextual themes included emergent success and the intrusion of past difficulties. These were mapped to parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk. The theme of building on success described behavioral intention. Mothers were more likely to adopt LENA when the technology was viewed as acceptable, and this was influenced by parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk. Conclusions: LENA is a technology that is acceptable to mothers with children who are at risk of poor language development outcomes. Further studies are needed to establish LENA’s effectiveness as an adjunct to strategies to enrich a child’s early language environment. 
SN  - 2561-6722
UR  - https://pediatrics.jmir.org/2021/3/e27049
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/27049
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34463633
DO  - 10.2196/27049
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/27049
ER  -