Texas Children's Hospital’s Section of Public Health Pediatrics and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Departments partnered together to initiate an innovative early intervention program, upWORDS: Baby, using the LENA Start curriculum to improve the long-term outcomes for children at risk. Approximately 100,000 births occur in the Greater Houston region annually. This large number of births in the region provide opportunities to impact a significant number of families through our public health initiatives. The goal of the upWORDS: Baby program is to coach families on how to engage their children in improving language outcomes, increase parent-child interaction, parental self-efficacy/resilience, and connections to supportive resources.
Cary Cain, MPH, RN, and Maura Dugan, MA, CCC-SLP
Cary Cain, MPH, RN1,2, Maura Dugan, MA, CCC-SLP3, Christopher Greeley, MD, MS1, Kimberly K. Lopez, DrPH1
1Baylor College of Medicine, 2The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 3Texas Children’s Hospital