Promoting parent-provider interaction during young children's health-supervision visits.

The team asked parents a single question before the doctor walked in: "Do you have any child health concerns today?"

They ran a true experiment. Families were picked at random to hear the prompt or to get care as usual.

Parents who heard the 30-second prompt started twice as many conversations with the doctor.

They also brought up twice as many health topics during the same short visit.

Billings et al. (1985) and Pear et al. (1984) already showed that simple reminders can pull families into the clinic. The 1990 study keeps the same low-cost spirit but moves the focus from "showing up" to "speaking up" once inside.

Hake et al. (1969) primed psychiatric adults to talk more, and Austin et al. (2006) primed drivers to stop. Schaal et al. (1990) uses the same prompt logic with parents, proving the tactic works across ages and settings.

Laugeson et al. (2014) later added real-time staff prompts. Together these papers form a thread: a quick nudge just before the moment of action lifts adult interaction in hospitals, roads, and group homes alike.

You can double parent engagement without adding visit time. Tape a note on the exam-room door or train medical assistants to ask the question while they check height. More parent talk means clearer medical decisions and fewer return calls.