The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) has published a report evaluating the impact of training health visitors in the use of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB), a tool to help with routine checks to promote infant wellbeing. The tool focuses on a baby’s social behaviours such as eye contact, facial expression, vocalisation, and activity levels to help practitioners better understand the ways babies express their feelings and to help parents and carers with bonding and attachment. It can also be used to recognise early signs of psychological distress, enabling specialist support to be accessed as soon as it is needed. Findings from a mix of surveys, audit data, focus groups and parent interviews include: ADBB training strengthens understanding of infant social withdrawal and increases practitioner confidence in observing and interpreting babies’ behaviour; health visitors reported feeling better equipped to articulate the baby’s perspective; and parents described the 6–8 week review as reassuring, supportive and confidence building.
Read the report: The Royal Foundation expands support for health visitors to “give babies a voice”
Source: iHV
Date published: 05 July 2026
