Changing the Conversation on Childhood Obesity

Read the Fast Company article about Change Talk.
 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight partnered with Kognito to create Change Talk: Childhood Obesity™, an innovative clinical training simulation designed to prepare pediatricians to effectively lead real-life conversations with children and their parents about weight issues. Since its debut, more than 36,000 individuals have used the Change Talk app and web resource to develop their MI skills in a virtual office environment by practicing a lifelike patient encounter. In a 2015 survey of over 300 providers who had just completed the simulation experience, 93% said they planned to change how they interacted with patients to provide better care, and 88% indicated a month later they had actually made that improvement. One physician participating in the survey said, “I usually lecture patients and see little change. This was amazing and a whole new way of thinking and communicating.”

A 2016 update to Change Talk expanded the app to three skill building episodes addressing (1) patient-centered counseling, (2) reflective listening, and (3) sustain talk. These additions reflect real-life conversations—soda consumption, breastfeeding, and snacking—increasing the opportunities to support obesity prevention and management. Change Talk features new interactive mini-lessons on MI techniques, with dashboards that convey detailed feedback to users about their performance in each virtual conversation.