What we are reading...

This research evaluates a district‑level paediatric hearing screening initiative in the Western Cape, South Africa, assessing screening referrals and outcomes from community settings compared with central tertiary services. The intervention showed increased attendance and reduced barriers such as travel distance to initial hearing screening for children, demonstrating that decentralised, community‑based screening within district healthcare can improve access and early identification of hearing issues for underserved populations.

This global survey of newborn and infant hearing screening (NIHS) in 158 countries shows major disparities in program coverage: about 33% of babies are screened universally while 38% have little or no screening. Early screening dramatically lowers the age of diagnosis and intervention for permanent childhood hearing loss. The authors call for stronger investment, data collection, and program expansion—especially in low-income countries.

This is a research article examining the sustainability of the audiology and speech-language therapy workforce in South Africa. It identifies workforce shortages, unequal geographic distribution, high exit rates, and training-to-employment gaps. The study highlights barriers like limited posts, poor career pathways and resource constraints, and recommends strategic planning, workforce investment and supportive policies to strengthen service availability.

This article reports on part of the first national survey of early hearing detection services in the private health care sector, where around 150 000 newborns were screened. It assesses early hearing loss identification practices, coverage, and service patterns, highlighting gaps in early detection and the need for improved screening to support timely intervention.

This article highlights the growing global burden of disabling hearing loss, affecting nearly 466 million people, including millions of children. It emphasizes the importance of universal newborn and infant hearing screening programs to enable early detection, diagnosis, and intervention. Effective screening systems, strong policies, and accessible audiological services are essential to reduce long-term impacts of childhood hearing loss.

This systematic review examined the age at which congenital or early-onset hearing loss is identified in South Africa. Analysing 10 studies involving 1,501 children, the pooled mean age of diagnosis was 30 months far later than the recommended one month. The findings highlight significant delays in early detection and emphasise the urgent need to strengthen newborn hearing screening, address barriers to early identification, and implement evidence-based interventions to improve paediatric hearing outcomes.

This is a clinical research article describing hearing loss among children under six years in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Using retrospective hospital data, the study characterises the types, severity, diagnoses ages and associated risk factors for childhood hearing loss, highlighting local patterns and implications for early detection and intervention services.

This study explores public awareness and referral pathways for audiology services in the public healthcare system. It identifies low awareness, inefficient referrals from primary healthcare providers, and sociocultural, linguistic, financial, and transport barriers as key obstacles to timely hearing care. The authors recommend public education, provider training, decentralized services, mobile clinics, and policy reform to strengthen referral systems and improve equitable access to audiology services.

This narrative study explores caregivers’ experiences accessing Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) services in South Africa, identifying systemic, logistical and financial barriers to timely diagnosis and support for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. It also highlights facilitators such as family support and counselling, emphasising the need for policy reform, expanded screening, financial assistance and public awareness to improve paediatric hearing outcomes.

This is a qualitative research article exploring how pregnant and breastfeeding women in Cape Town perceive alcohol use and what support they need. Participants generally understood that drinking during pregnancy is harmful, knew less about risks while breastfeeding, and highlighted stress, violence, poverty, and lack of support as key drivers of alcohol use, suggesting tailored community‑based interventions are needed.

This article highlights South Africa’s high rates of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and the absence of a coordinated national prevention programme. The authors argue that FASD has severe lifelong impacts on children, families, and society, and call for stronger government leadership, public health interventions, screening, education, and multisectoral collaboration to prevent prenatal alcohol exposure.

This systematic review and meta-analysis found that strengthening alcohol control policies like higher taxes, minimum unit pricing, and limited sales days generally reduces overall alcohol consumption. Pricing policies showed the largest effect, especially among low-income drinkers, though evidence on impacts across gender, socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups remains limited.

This study examines heavy drinking and its risk factors among adults in South Africa using data from the International Alcohol Control (IAC) study. It identifies individual and contextual determinants associated with heavy alcohol consumption — such as drinking environments, socioeconomic conditions, and behavioural patterns — to better inform public health strategies aimed at reducing harmful drinking and its associated harms

This article reviews South Africa’s progress in implementing the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. While gains were made in child health and services, inequalities remain for poor children, those under two, and children with disabilities. The authors call for better funding, coordination, and inclusive programmes to improve equitable early childhood development.

This article argues that Africa must lead its own early childhood development agenda using locally relevant data. It highlights progress in data availability but notes persistent gaps and risks for children. The authors call for stronger investment, better data systems, and evidence-based policies to improve child development outcomes across the continent.

This article proposes and tests a standardised measurement unit called the D‑score to make early childhood development assessments across ages, settings and different tools more comparable. Using data from tens of thousands of children and multiple instruments, the authors develop conversion keys and global scales that let diverse developmental tests be translated into a common metric, helping simplify research and policy comparisons.

This journal article emphasizes the importance of emotional support, connection, and nurturing care for children’s wellbeing. It argues that love, responsiveness, and stable caregiving environments are essential to healthy early development and lifelong outcomes.

This article proposes the first global definition and conceptual framework of maternal wellbeing developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The framework expands the focus beyond survival in pregnancy and childbirth to include holistic physical, emotional, and social wellbeing throughout pregnancy and up to one year after pregnancy. It identifies six key domains (e.g., health, nutrition, care experience, safety, relationships, autonomy, culture) that shape maternal wellbeing and calls for developing measurement tools and interventions to guide policy and programs aimed at improving outcomes for women and families globally.

This is a summary of a systematic review in Infant and Child Development defining parent responsiveness. It presents a theoretical model detailing how parents recognize, interpret, and respond to infants’ cues, emphasizing timing, sensitivity, and appropriateness. The model links responsive parenting to improved cognitive, social, and emotional development in early childhood.

This scoping review synthesizes global evidence on responsive caregiving examining caregiver, child, and contextual factors that influence caregiver responsiveness and how it relates to children’s neurodevelopment and mental health. It highlights significant gaps in research from the Global South and stresses that socio‑cultural contexts should inform inclusive interventions to strengthen caregiving and promote early child development.

This article explores factors enabling successful scaling of early parenting interventions through qualitative interviews with international experts. They identify key enablers including sustainable funding models, stakeholder buy-in, adaptable yet fidelity-focused implementation, strong multidisciplinary teams, and systems integration. The study emphasises scaling as a complex, long-term, and context-dependent process requiring strategic planning.

This study describes the co-design of a father-inclusive parenting intervention for couples with young children in Tanzania. It highlights engaging fathers in early childhood care, promoting shared parenting responsibilities, and improving child and family mental health outcomes.

This study evaluated whether playful parenting programs delivered at scale in Bhutan, Serbia, and Zambia improve caregiver practices and children’s development. Using interviews, direct child assessments, and focus groups, researchers found small to modest improvements in parenting practices for some groups, but limited or no consistent effects on child development. Results suggest challenges with program reach, quality of delivery, and implementation at scale.

This systematic review synthesises evidence on how women’s groups (WGs) improve maternal and child health quality across 19 countries. It examines group characteristics, processes and participation types, highlighting that WGs mainly function as developmental or instrumental participatory interventions. Although many studies show benefits, mechanisms (like decision‑making and cultural factors) are under‑described, underscoring the need for clearer frameworks to understand how WGs work.

This chapter of the article explains that children’s early development depends not only on individual caregivers but on a nurturing environment shaped by families, communities and national systems. It emphasises that responsive care, adequate nutrition and stimulating interactions require supportive policies, services and community engagement, arguing that broader social, economic and public systems must work together to enable caregivers to provide optimal nurturing care.

This is a systematic review and meta‑analysis evaluating home visiting programmes designed to support vulnerable families’ children. It synthesises evidence on how these interventions affect children’s mental health, psychosocial well‑being and developmental outcomes, identifying which programme features are most effective in improving early childhood trajectories.

This article describes a planned mixed‑methods research project to learn how two parenting programmes Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children and for Parents & Teens are being spread and scaled across multiple low‑ and middle‑income countries. It explains how the study will examine how these interventions are implemented, factors affecting implementation and sustainment, programme reach, family outcomes, and costs to better understand dissemination and scale‑up processes in real‑world settings.

This article explores caregivers’ lived experiences with early childhood care and education in Kenya and Uganda. The study critiques dominant, universal ECCE policies and argues that culturally responsive, context‑sensitive programmes that recognise indigenous knowledge and informal community systems are essential for meaningful ECCE provision.

This is a reflection on monitoring systems for parenting programmes during dissemination and scale-up, highlighting practical challenges and lessons learned. The paper discusses how implementation context, data quality, and adaptation affect monitoring effectiveness, emphasising the need for sustainable, coordinated approaches to ensure programme fidelity, learning, and impact at scale.

This study examines how young children’s brains respond to traditional book reading versus digital screen exposure. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), researchers measured brain activity, especially in language and cognitive control regions. The study found stronger activation and connectivity during book reading, suggesting it may better support language development and comprehension compared to passive screen time.