Grow and Know: Understanding Record-Keeping Needs for Tracking the Development of Young Children Julie A. Kientz, Rosa I. Arriaga, Marshini Chetty, Gillian R. Hayes, Jahmeilah Richardson, Shwetak N. Patel, and Gregory D. Abowd College of Computing and GVU Center Georgia Institute of Technology 85 5 th Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30332 {julie, rosa, marshini, gillian, jarichar, shwetak, abowd}@cc.gatech.edu ABSTRACT From birth through age five, children undergo rapid development and learn skills that will influence them their entire lives. Regular visits to the pediatrician and detailed record-keeping can ensure that children are progressing and can identify early warning signs of developmental delay or disability. However, new parents are often overwhelmed with new responsibilities, and we believe there is an opportunity for computing technology to assist in this process. In this paper, we present a qualitative study aimed at uncovering some specific needs for record-keeping and analysis for new parents and their network of caregivers. Through interviews and focus groups, we have confirmed assumptions about the rationales parents have and the functions required for using technology for record-keeping. We also identify new themes, potential prototypes, and design guidelines for this domain. Author Keywords Qualitative study, design inspiration, developmental delay, healthcare, children, design requirements. ACM Classification Keywords H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous, K4.2 :Computers and Society: Social Issues, J.3 Computer Applications: Life and Medical Sciences INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION It is estimated that as many as 19.5 percent of children in the United States between ages 3 and 17 have had a developmental delay, a learning disability, or an emotional disorder [1]. Many of these disorders are not apparent at birth and can manifest anywhere between the ages of 2 and 6, or even later. Many advocates argue that early detection is the key to improving the well-being of these children, and previous research has shown that the earlier interventions are started with atypically developing children, the more effective they are in helping the children cope with disabilities [27]. One way of improving the chances of early detection is through regular visits to the pediatrician and detailed record-keeping of when children meet different developmental milestones. Not meeting specific milestones by a certain age may be an early warning sign of any of these disorders. Thus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States (CDC) has launched a national campaign called "Learn the Signs: Act Early" to educate new parents about the warning signs of developmental delays. The aim is to enable parents to detect problems with their children and seek treatment as early as possible. The CDC outlines approximately 250 developmental milestones children should reach between birth and five years that parents can use to gauge the progress of their child's development. Although tracking the developmental progress of every child is an important public health goal, the job is largely left to parents to complete. Manually tracking every milestone is a daunting task for new parents, on top of the many additional responsibilities in their lives. Additionally, parents may not have the knowledge to identify and document these records. Consulting a paper-based manual every few months may be too cumbersome and not interactive enough, and parents may be so overwhelmed by parenting that they forget to record the many new things their children are doing. In addition to just checking off which milestones their children have achieved, parents should also track whether or not their children have lost any of the previously attained milestones or have slowed developmental progress overall. This is because signs of developmental delay can also manifest as a regression of skills or a plateau in skill development. Many parents already engage in record-keeping tasks for their new children, such as making photo albums or writing down important firsts, such as a first tooth, in a baby book. Thus, there is already a desire to conduct record-keeping for sentimental reasons. Computing technology has the ability to address some of the difficulties and tedium associated with manually tracking milestones. Furthermore, this technology can be persuasive in nature and actually motivate the collection process. We believe parents and caregivers can use appropriately designed instruments to track and record their Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. CHI 2007, April 28–May 3, 2007, San Jose, California, USA. Copyright 2007 ACM 978-1-59593-593-9/07/0004...$5.00. CHI 2007 Proceedings • Kids & Family April 28-May 3, 2007 • San Jose, CA, USA 1351