A dialogue tool designed to catch concerning development in children earlier

PRO-DIALOG is a method and a digital tool, developed by consultant and professor Ingvar Bjelland at Helse Bergen and the University of Bergen, designed to make it possible to catch concerning development in children earlier - and put the right measures in place before challenges grow larger. Together with Vestlandets Innovasjonsselskap (VIS), Youwell has built the digital version, which gives kindergartens and parents a structured dialogue tool to meet around.

The challenge

Kindergarten is one of the best arenas we have for spotting concerning development in children early - almost all Norwegian children attend kindergarten during the years when the foundation for further development is laid. Yet existing tools for identifying mental health challenges in young children are not very accessible, practical, or user-friendly. The parent conversation traditionally became a monologue from the kindergarten teacher to the parents, without a systematic tool for catching concerning development early enough for the right measures to be put in place.

How Youwell addressed the challenge

The method, Dialogue-Based Early Detection (DBTO), uses a questionnaire (the Early Worry Questionnaire, EWQ) with 39 tick-box questions and three free-text questions, which both parents and the kindergarten teacher fill in before the six-monthly development conversation. Youwell has built the digital version on the Youwell platform: digital access to the questionnaire, a visualisation of combined answers from up to three respondents for use in the conversation itself, a concluding questionnaire after the conversation, and a dedicated form for tracking the status of measures planned or started for the child - with a full history of changes throughout the child's development. The research-based method is being tested in parallel through a randomised controlled trial (PRO-DIALOG-r) with 22 kindergartens, while the innovation strand (PRO-DIALOG-i) is building the user version that will be available to kindergartens outside the research project itself.

Results customers experience

• PRO-DIALOG has been awarded NOK 14.11 million from the Research Council of Norway over a four-year period
• The digital platform is funded with dedicated grants from the Research Council of Norway (NOK 0.5 million) and the DAM Foundation (NOK 1.77 million)
• 22 kindergartens are taking part in the randomised controlled trial
• High response rate on questionnaires from both parents and kindergarten teachers
• International research collaboration with universities in Aberdeen, Gothenburg, and Zagreb
• The tool will eventually be offered to kindergartens outside the research project itself