Porter Novelli

Promote early screening for children at risk for developmental disabilities.

Porter Novelli conducted extensive focus groups with parents of typically developing young children, parents of children with autism, doctors and child care providers. We quickly realized that not only were parents unaware of the warning signs of autism, but they were also not familiar with complex developmental milestones: making eye contact, pointing, waving “hello.” These benchmarks indicate healthy childhood development; lack of them could be early warning signs of a developmental delay. For its second phase of research, Porter Novelli utilized its proprietary HealthStyles and DocStyles research database, designed specifically to map health beliefs, attitudes, social norms and behaviors surrounding important public health concerns. Results indicated that not only parents but also health care professionals had gaps in knowledge regarding the full spectrum of childhood developmental milestones, and did not know that autism could be recognized as early as 18 months of age.

Parents fear the word “autism” and will tune out any messaging that suggests seeking information on the topic. They want information to help them recognize a problem, but they actively turn away from messaging that may suggest an autism spectrum disorder.

This key insight led to the development of the “Learn the Signs. Act Early.” campaign. Porter Novelli developed a two-pronged approach: 1.) Educate all parents about typical childhood development, which in turn equips them to recognize when their child has a delay; and 2.) educate health care professionals to act early in referring children with potential delays for developmental assessments and treatment. In addition to a series of free bilingual educational materials, we developed partnerships with national organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and we reached parents through media and grassroots efforts around the country.

Materials designed by Porter Novelli and Radio Outhouse have been widely distributed. More than 20,500 resource kits have been sent to health care professionals and 35,900 to parents. The website has seen more than 270,800 unique visitors and more than 77,200 downloads. The campaign even has materials in the hallways and operating rooms on “Grey’s Anatomy.” The campaign has had phenomenal success in reaching its target audiences. A viral campaign and matte release reached more than 5 million health care professionals. National news media coverage reached an estimated 3.9 million people — outlets included “Good Morning America,” Newsweek, CNBC, Parents and The New York Times.

To evaluate our efforts and monitor success, we built evaluation metrics into our planning process from the beginning. Given our stated goals, we decided to use Porter Novelli’s proprietary Styles survey to measure changes in knowledge and attitudes among our target audiences. Through Styles, we are able to monitor progress as well as identify areas of need to improve campaign outcomes. We monitored the following data points, which were developed at baseline as a part of our planning and evaluation process: More parents of young children said that the best time to get help is before 2 years of age (22 percent baseline to 41 percent in 2008). More than half of parents of young children know which behaviors most suggest a developmental delay (from 37 percent baseline to 59 percent in 2008). Pediatricians are more likely to discuss a full range of developmental milestones, including social development (from 85 percent baseline to 91 percent in 2008). We saw more than a 25 percent decrease in pediatricians who strongly agreed or agreed that they would tell a worried parent to “wait and see” (a key indicator of pediatricians responding to our campaign; from 30 percent baseline to 22 percent in 2008). The campaign is not only increasing awareness, but also changing behavior, leading to improved outcomes and advancement of the cause.