eba7keb
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Elizabeth is a clinical psychologist who specializes in child development, child behavior, and working with children and families in community settings, schools, clinics, and hospitals. She has worked with children and families for over 15 years. She provides training and education to students and professionals, has presented at national and international conferences, has published articles and book chapters on child development, and has been interviewed by magazines and radio programs on a variety of parent topics. She lives outside of Washington, DC with her husband, two children, and labrador.
- Thanks! And thanks again for the feedback.
- Great feedback! We will think about this and perhaps do some testing around this language with our audience.
- Right now we work closely with parents (checking in with them each month before the books ship out) to help guide them in making the decision around book choice. We also have a form parents can send to the teachers. In the future, we will have a tighter feedback loop to support this decision making that comes directly from the way the child interacts with the app (if we have the permission to analyze that data from the parent).
- Thanks for your comment! As of right now, We aren't a tool that diagnoses or assesses in a formal way (though we may move in that direction in the future). Research shows that the number of children who read for pleasure is the lowest it has been in decades. Additionally, many children don't read at home at all, and resist parent (and school) bids to have them read at home independently. Ello's focus is more on making reading for fun a more supported experience where the kids have an opportunity to learn in the moment (using evidence-based strategies). We support comprehension through commentary Ello makes (summarizing and commenting as the child reads) rather than testing or assessing the child's comprehension skills. This was a purposeful choice. Hyperlexia isn't something that can be "created" through reading independently (Elizabeth here, child clinical psychologist and co-founder of Ello). It is a (relatively rare) disorder where very young children decode far above grade level. In most cases, this is flagged in schools, and would be flagged for us if a parent reported a very high reading ability for their child's age (which is usually the opposite profile of our customer). However, you are correct that hyperlexia is a learning difference where there is decoding without meaning. Generally, we send books for children that are at or below grade level in reading for practice with reading fluency. We aren't a full service curriculum (and have designed our program to focus on enjoyment and time in text).
- Thanks for the comment! We find that if a parent actually uses the product, and it changes their child's relationship with reading, Ello is quite sticky. Our biggest issues with churn are related to cost of the product and activation (people cancelling without ever using it). In terms of advice: 1) talk to parents about their pain points and iterate again and again, 2) be aware that a product that increases "work" rather than easing it, that causes a lot of resistance and friction.
We took a look at read along - it seems to have fallen off. I think the biggest issue with read along was the approach to supporting kids (it just gave the words rather than coaching the child through decoding them) and the quality of the "books" (the stories weren't that engaging and the illustrations were simple). The quality of the story matters a lot.
We looked at soapbox but for a number of reasons, we want to build our own speech recognition technology and have the team to do it! There are some issues with the time is takes for soapbox to run as well as the accuracy of the model. Thanks again!
- Thanks for your input!
- There are actually really clear guidelines on what is reportable and what is not. CPS generally can't and won't do anything beyond take a call if the content of the call doesn't suggest a valid safety concern and meet the guidelines. Any parent talking to any service provider (or educator or doctor) will be talking to someone who follows these same guidelines.
- Thanks for being honest, and I am sorry you feel that way. You are welcome to learn more about our privacy policy. I have helped countless families through my career, and have an incredibly deep respect for parents who seek support. I also believe that for our service to work, we have to have trust and operate ethically. I would not risk my professional ethics (or my license) for the sake of my business. Our vision is truly to make support more accessible and affordable for families. There is a need, and it's really sad when parents can't get the support they need or want, and don't always have easy access to reliable information.
- To clarify, a mandated reporter is a person who has to disclose child abuse if a child is in danger. I think this is an important protection for children. These are the same standards any psychologist, therapist, school, pediatrician etc. are held to. All those service providers are mandated reporters.
- Thanks - lots of parents say it saves them a ton of time. We have had parents say 'I don't have time to read 5 contradicting books on sleep and potty training, all saying their approach is the best one.' We can help parents sort through the noise, look at their options, and figure out which approach makes the most sense for them.
- Having children is absolutely a valuable experience! We definitely have coaches who have several children. I think this can cut both ways, though. I was a child psychologist before I had my own children. I don't think it dramatically changed the way I support parents. Mostly because I wasn't working from the framework of my personal experience. What I do with my own children is irrelevant when helping a parent (this is the difference between advice and evidence-based information) - and in fact, there is nothing worse than a therapist saying 'well, with MY kids at every turn (it can be helpful, but you have to be careful)....' Having a child gives you lots of experience, but it doesn't make you an expert in child development (it does help when working with parents, and a LOT of parents appreciate when our coaches have several kids of their own). Also, there are often many ways to get to a goal, and it varies by the child, parent and family. Professionals can often speak to a range of choices (think: sleep) rather than just their own personal experience.
I should also say that we have parents on our service who have 5 children, and tell us each is different, and they still appreciate the support and wisdom.
- I appreciate this really important question. I think the same way that psychologists, therapists, and teachers do. There is absolutely something powerful about a shared cultural experience with a provider, and we are keeping diversity on the forefront of our mind when hiring, recruiting, and onboarding coaches (it's also a reason that we allow parents to choose their own coach, rather than assigning them). The second is that our professionals, like all licensed professionals in education and the helping professions, are trained to be able to work with a variety of people, and cultural competence is emphasized (it's often a required component of training, education, and continuing education). We screen for cultural competency and the ability to work with a diverse range of parents. That being said, we know at the cultural match is important, and this is a real issue that exists in the helping professions. We hope that Trustle will actually provide a platform for increased opportunity and availability of diverse coaches (as opposed to being confined by who lives in your immediate area).
- Thanks for sharing your experience. Alina is fantastic!
- And, the parenting books by Emily Oster (Crib Sheet and Expecting Better - the latter is about pregnancy and the first early childhood).
- Thank you for sharing your experience! The most rewarding part of this process has been seeing the way parents feel supported by our coaches, and they really are amazing.
- Are you asking if there is a body of research about child development/sleep/behavior management/learning in children? Yes, there is. Yes, it is public (and diffuse). And it is often misinterpreted and over/under-stated in parenting blogs and books (screen time is a great example of this). There are contradictory studies, but you have to look carefully and weigh the merits of the study (is it correlational? is it a valid study? what are the confounding variables? what is the size of the sample? what are the researchers conclusions?).
Have you ever read Emily Oster? She talks a lot about deciphering the data on pregnancy and caring for children (she wrote expecting better and crib sheet). It's messy science, but there is absolutely data. All the more reason a professional can support a parent to understand how (if) it applies to them and could inform decisions they make when working through a challenge.
- It would be awesome if we could figure out how to get insurance to cover this type of support. I also don't think it just replaces that. Parents spend a ton of money on books, courses, etc. There is also the time factor (we save parents a lot of time), and filling the need of parents who might go see a therapist to get support, but don't really need that level of support. We are also priced well below the market for parent coaches and sleep consultants (usually $150 a session).
- Thanks for posting - very cool! Send us an email at founders@trustle.com :)
- Amazing news! Let us know what you think - our infant sleep experts are pretty amazing! 6 weeks is really tiny, but I am confident our expert will talk you through a developmentally appropriate plan that takes into account your infants feeding needs and sets up on the path for sleep organization! :)
It's also worth noting we aren't a full solution or a curriculum. So teaching in other ways still needs to take place. For many parents, it beats Disney plus and YouTube kids :)