Primary Care-based Program to Enhance Positive Parenting Practices

Enriching parenting behaviors in early childhood promotes child development and offers a promising strategy to reduce future educational disparities. However, current interventions are limited by cost and have not been widely disseminated. Recognized as a target for research to improve early childhood development and school readiness among at-risk families, the primary care setting offers an ideal opportunity to reach the millions of children living in poverty.However, what remains unknown is how to more efficiently leverage the primary care setting to deliver a sustainable and effective preventive intervention to promote positive parenting behaviors and encourage early childhood development in low-income families. Therefore, the investigators designed Sit Down and Play (SDP) a brief parent-directed program delivered in the primary care setting. Modeled after the widely disseminated literacy program Reach Out and Read and grounded in social cognitive theory, SDP is intended to take place during each pediatric well-child visit occurring in a child's first two years with the goal of promoting positive parenting behaviors.

Inclusion criteria

• Parent is 18 years or older
• Child is present for a 2, 4, or 6 month well-child visit
• Adult present with child at appointment is parent/caregiver of child

Exclusion criteria

• Parent is non-English speaking
• Child is acutely sick