What we are reading...

This article reviews the status of early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) services for infants in South Africa. It highlights that while EHDI programs are the global standard, most children with congenital or early-onset hearing loss in South Africa are not identified early due to limited screening, low awareness, and scarce services. The paper discusses prevalence, current practices, barriers to universal newborn hearing screening, and the need for improved early identification and timely intervention to support optimal developmental outcomes.

This is a 2025 meta‑analysis of 51 studies that assessed how ChatGPT affects student learning outcomes. It found that using ChatGPT is associated with large improvements in learning performance and moderate gains in students’ learning perceptions and higher‑order thinking. The effects varied by course type, learning model and duration of use, and the study recommends structured integration of ChatGPT into teaching and learning to enhance educational benefits.

This study identifies “development accelerators” services such as HIV prevention, violence reduction, sexual and reproductive health support, and education access that concurrently improve multiple health and wellbeing outcomes for adolescent mothers in South Africa. Using longitudinal data, it highlights how expanding effective, integrated interventions can reduce risks and promote better health, schooling, and safety for adolescent mothers and their children.

This article explores how everyday experiences shape adolescent brain development. Activities such as conversation, singing, reading, and proper nutrition strengthen memory, creativity, and cognitive function. It also highlights how African storytelling and music enrich neural growth, emphasizing the powerful role of supportive communities in unlocking young people’s potential.

This issue presents a set of learning briefs focused on improving early childhood development in South Africa. It highlights challenges such as malnutrition, unequal access to early learning programmes, and gaps in developmental outcomes, while drawing on evidence and programme insights to show how targeted interventions can improve children’s health, learning readiness, and long-term development.

This study explores how stunting is measured and monitored in South Africa, focusing on conceptual and methodological challenges that influence prevalence estimates. It highlights inconsistencies in data collection, sampling, and age definitions across surveys, which affect comparability. The authors recommend improved standardisation and stronger surveillance systems to enhance accuracy in tracking child stunting trends and informing policy decisions

This study, part of the Safe Passage Study, investigates the relationship between alcohol exposure before and during pregnancy and its potential impact on fetal growth and development. It aims to understand how maternal alcohol consumption at different stages of pregnancy may affect the growth trajectory of the fetus, using ultrasound and birth measurements to provide evidence that can guide public health recommendations and interventions for maternal and child health.

This is a systematic review summarising South African studies (1997–2021) on anaemia, iron deficiency (ID), and iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) in women of reproductive age and children under five. It found anaemia common (22–44% in women; up to 61% in young children), with variable ID and IDA levels, highlighting moderate public‑health concern and need to strengthen iron‑related interventions.

This research article analyses how parental death versus parental absence impacts child stunting and hunger, using regional data to distinguish their effects on child nutritional outcomes. It explores the added disadvantage faced by children who lose parents or live apart from them and the implications for targeting nutrition and social support policies.

This is a South African research article identifying priority interventions to reduce stunting among children in the complementary feeding period (around 6–24 months). It reviews evidence and suggests targeted nutrition, health, care and community strategies to improve dietary quality, feeding practices and growth outcomes in early childhood

This report traces the development of antenatal HIV and syphilis sentinel surveillance in South Africa from 1990 to 2022. It highlights its role in tracking prevalence, guiding policy, and improving maternal health. The authors discuss challenges, data gaps, and propose integrating surveillance systems to strengthen future monitoring and response efforts.

This study evaluated a community‑based universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) pilot across three primary health clinics in rural Limpopo, South Africa. Reviewing 2 302 infant records, it assessed coverage, referral, and follow‑up rates. While benchmarks weren’t fully met, high screening coverage and manageable referral rates demonstrate the feasibility of implementing rural UNHS. The authors argue that regular monitoring and evaluation can strengthen early hearing detection and intervention in underserved contexts.

This study surveyed private health facilities across South Africa to assess newborn hearing screening coverage, methods used, and implementation challenges. It found only about half of private obstetric units offer any screening and very few provide universal screening, highlighting gaps in systematic newborn hearing loss detection and the need for improved standardised services.

This scoping review maps and characterises alcohol harm reduction (AHR) interventions studied in North America, Europe and Australia from 2011–2022. It identifies diverse strategies psychological support, socio‑economic assistance, care system coordination, skills learning and peer support and notes many reported reductions in alcohol harms, consumption or risky behaviour. The review also discusses facilitators and barriers influencing intervention effectiveness and highlights the importance of accessible, culturally adapted AHR approaches.

This peer‑reviewed study examines dietary intake and nutrient status among pregnant women in the Free State Province of South Africa, exploring how household food insecurity affects key nutrient consumption. It identifies widespread shortfalls in essential nutrients (protein, fibre, vitamins C, D, E, K and others), emphasises the role of supplements, and highlights implications for maternal and fetal health, suggesting that nutrition education, food fortification, supplementation and poverty‑alleviation strategies are crucial.

One in four children in the world today suffers from stunting. What can countries with high stunting rates today learn from Japan’s experience of going from 70% to 5%? Japan's experience shows that transformation is possible, but it requires simultaneous action on disease, diet, and infrastructure sustained over a generation. Nonetheless, that seems like an investment worth making. The future of hundreds of millions of children depends on it.

This is a scoping review examining quantitative measures of subjective wellbeing used with adolescents (aged ~10–24 years). It identified 52 distinct measures, mapped them to a global adolescent wellbeing framework, and found that while many capture wellbeing domains, some areas especially safety and supportive environments are less consistently measured. The review highlights tools that can improve population wellbeing monitoring and guide policy and interventions.

This study used growth mixture modeling on South African high-school students to identify four distinct adolescent substance-use trajectories (three increasing, one stable). It found that healthy leisure experiences were linked to lower use, suggesting that promoting meaningful leisure could help prevent or reduce adolescent substance use.

This article evaluates how the Waves for Change (W4C) 5‑Pillar Method, a sport‑based, community‑run psychosocial programme, was implemented in South Africa. It finds that using local youth coaches, safe and fun activities, regular training, transport, meals and partnerships supported feasibility, acceptability and adoption. Challenges included coach capacity and measuring soft outcomes, but overall the intervention shows promise for building adolescent resilience through task‑shared mental health support.

This scoping review maps existing evidence on combined hearing and vision screening programmes globally. It describes study characteristics, methods and outcomes from 19 studies, noting most originate from high‑income settings. The review outlines potential benefits like early detection and shared resources as well as challenges including follow‑up and implementation issues. It highlights a need for more research, especially in low‑ and middle‑income countries, and standardized reporting guidelines for integrated sensory screening.

This study developed a flexible, tiered same-day screening model for preschoolers in low-resource early childhood education settings. Using participatory feedback, the model streamlines visits, shortens assessments, and tailors developmental and health screening to each child’s readiness, enhancing feasibility, cultural responsiveness and early identification for referral in low- and middle-income contexts.

This article introduces a special issue on Family‑Centered Early Intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (FCEI‑DHH). It explains how an international panel revised and expanded a 2013 consensus on evidence‑based principles by incorporating broader cultural perspectives, family and DHH leader input, and new research to guide global FCEI‑DHH practice and improve supports for children and their families.

This article highlights the importance of adhering to Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) guidelines in South Africa and promotes the Listening and Spoken Language–South Africa (LSL‑SA) approach for children with hearing impairment. It reviews evidence showing that LSL‑SA can lead to improved communication outcomes and faster progress compared with traditional therapy. The authors argue for culturally responsive, family‑centred early intervention and broader implementation to improve equitable access to services.

This article analyses the economic value of scaling up WHO-recommended ear and hearing care interventions (HEAR) across 172 countries. It models costs and benefits from 2020–2030, finding that investing in screening, prevention, hearing technologies and rehabilitation could avert over 130 million DALYs and deliver roughly US $15 in economic return for every US $1 spent, showing strong cost-effectiveness.

This article argues that universal neonatal hearing screening (NHS) should be implemented worldwide as a public health priority. Early detection of hearing loss in newborns occurring in about 1–2 per 1000 births allows timely intervention, which greatly improves children’s language, cognitive, social, and educational development. Although some countries have effective universal NHS programs, others (like Greece) lack nationwide mandates. The authors emphasize that universal NHS is cost‑effective, ethically necessary, and crucial for equitable access to early intervention and lifelong opportunities for children with hearing impairments.

This is a a narrative review of South African laws and policies that affect early support for children with hearing loss from birth to age six. It examines national frameworks related to early childhood development, intervention, and education, highlighting gaps, limited implementation, and the need for mandated early hearing detection and cross‑sector coordination to improve timely services and outcomes.

This research article investigates caregivers’ preferences for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) services in South Africa. Using conjoint analysis with 31 caregivers, it identifies key service attributes such as home-language provision, nearby diagnostics, home-based early intervention, integrated support, and lower costs that could improve access, equity, and family-centred EHDI care.

This research article explores how caregivers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing experience early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) services in South Africa. The study found that while some aspects of family‑centered care are working, systemic, linguistic and cultural barriers like language mismatches, fragmented services, limited paternal involvement and insufficient respectful engagement undermine equitable, effective EHDI practices and highlight the need for more culturally responsive, coordinated care.

This review examines how cost influences access and sustainability of early intervention (EI) services for deaf and hard‑of‑hearing children across Africa. High out‑of‑pocket expenses, limited public funding, fragmented financing, and inequitable access to hearing technologies hinder service uptake. The paper advocates integrating economic evidence into policy, expanding public financing, pooled procurement, and culturally responsive, community‑based models to improve equity and long‑term outcomes.

This study explores how South African caregivers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing understand and enact their role in early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI). It highlights caregivers’ lived experiences, perceived responsibilities, and the barriers they face—including systemic, logistical and resource constraints—that influence access to timely screening, diagnosis and intervention services.