Positive Relationships: Buggies - Seeing eye to eye

After being alerted to ongoing research by the Talk to Your Baby campaign (TTYB), linking 'away-facing' buggies to speech and language delay in children, Firbank Children's Centre, in Lancashire, joined a scheme to consider the benefits of this style of transport. The centre swapped its existing pushchairs for 'pusher-facing' buggies in October.

'It seemed like common sense when we heard the initial findings that children who had most face-to-face contact had the best speech and sense of well-being,' says Firbank manager Sarah Hargreaves.

Final results into what is the first-ever study on the psychological effects of buggies on young children's development were published late last month. The study found that:

- Parents using face-to-face buggies were twice as likely to be talking to their baby (25 per cent compared with 11 per cent)

- Mothers who had a chance to use both types of buggy in the study also laughed more frequently with face-to-face buggies

- Babies' average heart rates fell slightly when placed in a pusher-facing buggy and babies were also twice as likely to fall asleep in this kind of buggy, suggesting that facing the pusher reduced children's stress levels.

The research was carried out by developmental psychologist Dr M Suzanne Zeedyk of Dundee University, in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust, which runs the TTYB campaign.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Zeedyk said, 'If babies are spending significant amounts of time in a buggy that undermines their ability to communicate easily with their parent, at an age when the brain is developing more than it will ever again in life, then this has to impact negatively on their development.

'It looks, from our results, that it is time that we began carrying out larger-scale research on this issue. Parents deserve to be able to make informed choices as to how to best promote children's emotional, physical, and neurological development.'

Firbank hopes to add to current research by passing back its findings to the TTYB campaign at three months, six months and a year into its project.

So far the issue has focused on parents, but Firbank will be looking at the effect when buggies are pushed by another carer, in particular the extent to which it impacts on the key-person/child relationship.

It will also track sales of pusher-facing buggies at the local retailer who provided the centre with them.

Spreading the Word

Another aim of the centre's project is to raise awareness about adverse affects from the away-facing buggies.

Ms Hargreaves has sent parents leaflets on the advantages of the centre's new buggies, which are on display along with information about the National Literacy Trust's research. They can even take a buggy for a trial run. Staff have all also been briefed on National Literacy Trust information to pass on to parents.

They have attached swing tickets reading 'Stop and ask me about pusher-facing pushchairs' to the centre's buggies. 'No-one has approached us so far,' says Ms Hargreaves, 'but the swing tickets are thought-provoking anyway.'

Short Supply

The National Literacy Trust study found that 62 per cent of all the children observed were travelling in away-facing buggies, a rate that rose to 82 per cent for children between the ages of one and two years.

Firbank staff have similarly observed the popularity of away-facing buggies in their area, but have been struck too by the scarcity of alternative models available - only two types of twin buggies are on sale in their high street - and their higher price tag.

Recognising this, the National Literacy Trust is lobbying all manufacturers to put more pusher-facing buggies into production.

Although the project is still new, early results are positive. Sarah Hargreaves says, 'The prams are nicer to use and the babies seem happier. Staff also think it's really nice to be able to look at the babies, and seeing their reactions it's difficult not to respond in a positive way.'

In the long term, Firbank staff hope their findings will back up the National Literacy Trust's research, and it is possible that the scheme will be used as a case study in the Trust's literature. For now the Firbank centre is continuing to spread the word and has contacted other settings to urge them to follow its lead.

MORE INFORMATION

- The Talk to Your Baby Campaign is run by the National Literacy Trust to encourage parents to talk more to children from birth to three.

- What's life in a baby buggy like? The impact of buggy orientation on parent-infant interaction and infant stress, carried out by Dr M Suzanne Zeedyk, is at www.literacytrust.org.uk