Reply to ""Active Skill Building" AND well researched "advice and information"?"

Dear Shelley,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts relating to our new video. We certainly don't mean to disparage meaningful efforts to reach parents and caregivers in a variety of ways — clearly different people respond to receiving information in different ways. That said, there's a great deal of evidence showing very little impact on child outcomes of programs that simply provide didactic information about parenting, so the emphasis of our video was to show why we think a better approach may be active skill-building. As noted, it's a theory of change, not a proven intervention. Clearly you have a theory of change for your intervention as well. It may turn out that, for some caregivers, receiving timely reminders by text message may in fact serve as a virtual mentor or coach — it will be very interesting to see what happens as you evaluate SAYB for its effectiveness on parenting behaviors and child outcomes.

In response to your request for an endorsement, I'm afraid that Center policy does not permit us to endorse any particular product or service.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.