Háblame Bebé: A phone app to reduce the word gap and promote bilingualismMelissa Baralt, PhD1, Natalie Brito, PhD2, Ashley Darcy Mahoney, PhD, NNP3

1Florida International University, 2Columbia University, 3George Washington University

BackgroundHáblame Bebé targets the nation’s largest ethnic group: Hispanics, with the long-term goal of decreasing our nation’s health costs and increasing global competitiveness. The word gap is worse for Hispanic children whose immigrant caregivers believe that they should switch from Spanish to English as a result of assimilation pressure or misinformed advice from professionals. Nonnative language input is less useful to babies’ language acquisition than native input. When Spanish-speaking caregivers switch to nonnative English, it decreases children’s vocabulary in English and slows growth of Spanish vocabulary. Caregivers must be informed, feel safe, and be empowered to use their heritage language with their children in this country. A proud sociolinguistic identity is imperative in order to instantiate behavioral change.

Intervention components after Phase 1• Conversation starters for regular, daily routines • Videos that demonstrate other Hispanic moms

providing Language Nutrition to their children in Spanish

• Videos of Hispanic parents talking about the importance of using Spanish for Hispanic identity, culture, and pride

• Videos of Hispanic parents explaining the benefits of bilingualism

• Videos of Hispanic parents sharing anecdotes about being made to feel bad about using Spanish, and how/why they overcame that

• Developmental milestones • Weekly text message reminders • Incentivization: bilingual word registry• Incentivization: mothers earn hearts upon providing

Language Nutrition to their baby

PHASE 2: Testing alpha version of intervention for iPhone and Android

Participants: Twelve mothers, all recruited from WIC clinics in Miami-Dade, and with a high school education or less (3: Cuba, 6: Venezuela, 1: Honduras, 1: Dominican Republic, 1: Colombia)

Study design:

Evidence of sustained engagement and of social validity

1. Usage data: 100% earned daily five hearts four times week. 100% earned hearts for all of the routine icons in app.

2. Usage data: 100% entered baby’s vocabulary words• March 24: 684 words (465 Span, 219 Eng)

3. Text messages to researcher to share excitement: 100% sent unsolicited texts (screen shots, videos or audios of themselves giving Language Nutrition, emojis)

4. Engagement with Háblame Bebé social media:• 100% mothers follow us on Instagram• 80% mothers follow us on Facebook• 499 views of the first video example of

Language Nutrition5. Telling friends about app: 100% (19 friend emails)6. Informing the researcher when there was a glitch7. Notes from mothers explaining how they feel about app 8. Commitment (all participants stayed in study)9. Several mothers have made suggestions (e.g., I would

love to print out a chart of his word registry so that I can put it in my baby book)

PHASE 1: Intervention designThis study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 focused on design of the intervention for our culturally and linguistically diverse population. We created Language Nutrition content in Spanish and then piloted a beta version of the app with 20 mothers. Half were college educated and half had a high school education or less.

From that study, we learned that mothers were significantly more willing to change their behavior in their native language if they felt safe and proud to do so. Those who had experienced linguistic racism surrounding Spanish language use were less likely to do so. We modified the intervention based on these findings and incorporated all suggestions from the mothers for Phase 2.

The Science behind it: Language NutritionThe rich, back-and-forth interaction and loving words

that are critical for the developing brain and for language acquisition (Talk With Me Baby).

ResultsChanges in Behavior (measured with IPCI II)Free play activity

Words: (Md. 518.5 à 650.5, z =-3.06, p = .002 (r = .63). Questions: (Md. 36.5 à 55). z =-2.83, p = .005 (r = .58)

Book reading activity

Words: (Md. 402 à 506, z =-2.98, p = .003 (r = .61). Questions: (Md. 9.5 à 27.5). z =-2.31, p = .021 (r = .47)

There was also an overall decrease pre- to post-intervention in the use of directives and of English-language switches.

Changes in KnowledgeBefore the intervention, not one mother could define Language Nutrition, the word gap, or cite a brain benefit of bilingualism. After the intervention, 100% could. Examples of their definitions (translated):Language Nutrition:• Take to my baby with many loving words and patience.Word gap:• It’s what happens when one doesn’t talk to their baby.

He won’t have words. Because the only way a baby learns vocabulary is … when we talk to him.

Benefits of bilingualism:• It helps the brain a lot. They can pay attention better.

Changes in BeliefsMothers increased their feelings of pride and safety surrounding Spanish language use. All increased in their beliefs (measured via questionnaire) that Spanish language use is the best thing they can do for their baby.

DiscussionHáblame Bebé was feasible for a low-income and vulnerable population. Twelve mothers worked off of a fully functioning alpha version of the app in both iPhone and Android platforms and significantly changed in their behaviors, knowledge, and beliefs after doing so.

Families are most comfortable using Spanish and can produce the best high-quality language for their children in the home language. Mothers explicitly articulated how and why they should be proud and safe to speak Spanish to their babies. From a theoretical perspective, this was critical to lead to behavioral change. This small-scale study 1) speaks to the importance of tailoring interventions so that they are built on cultural beliefs, and 2) highlights the potential of apps in early childhood education and caregiving.

AcknowledgementsThis research was supported by a grant awarded by the Word Gap Challenge, organized by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). We are grateful to HRSA, the TWMB leaders team, WIC, the Florida Department of Health, the Center for Children and Families at Florida International University, and the Bridging the Word Gap Research Network. We are also grateful to the 32 families who participated in this study, and the time, love, and Language Nutrition that they put forth every day. Contact Melissa Baralt at mbaralt@fiu.edu.