New Royal partnership study to promote infant wellbeing and development

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, spearheaded by Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, has announced a new partnership study, to be led by Oxford Professor Jane Barlow  of Oxford University, with the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV). It is intended to support health visitors' work with families in promoting infant wellbeing and social development. The Princess met Professor Barlow and health visitors taking part in the study yesterday, when she visited Riversley Park Children's Centre in Nuneaton. The work of The Centre for Early Childhood seeks to raise awareness of why early childhood matters and to translate this evidence from neuroscience into practice. A grant from the Royal Foundation will support health visitors in this area through a small-scale field trial to support the promotion of infant wellbeing and by enhancing health visitors' ability to identify infants at risk. Study leader, Jane Barlow, Professor of Evidence Based Intervention and Policy and head of Oxford's Department of Social Policy , says, 'This is a very exciting opportunity to focus on babies' behaviour, using the new observation tool, the ADBB. This tool can help health visitors focus on the ways babies communicate, using eye contact, facial expressions and vocalisation etc.