In South Africa, many children with extensive support needs--including children who require AAC--are accommodated in care centers rather than the public schooling system. Caregivers employed at these centers need training in order to support children's communication using augmentative and alternative methods. A total of 29 center-based caregivers…

Background: This article emerged from a larger qualitative study, which revealed that children continue to be exposed to a complex range of risk factors with devastating consequences for their well-being. Gaps in services further hinder their development. The study concluded that there is a need for multidisciplinary teams to implement an early…

Caring for children with developmental delays or disabilities places significant stress on caregivers, which is often exacerbated in low-resource settings. The World Health Organization developed a caregiver skills training for families of children with developmental delays or disabilities, which includes a three-session caregiver well-being…

Communication partners are instrumental in the successful use and implementation of augmentative and alternative communication systems (AAC), especially in schools, but stakeholder views from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are not well represented in the literature. Focus group interviews with seven professionals and three caregivers…

Despite evidence supporting the implementation of book sharing interventions, few studies have examined the value of providing caregiver training in these contexts. This study draws on the quantitative findings of a larger project that employed a non-randomized comparison group crossover repeated measures design as part of a mixed research…

This study evaluated the impact of a parenting intervention on children's cognitive and socioemotional development in a group of caregivers and their 21-to-28-month-old children in a low-income South African township. A randomized controlled trial compared an experimental group (n = 70) receiving training in dialogic book-sharing (8 weekly group…

Prospective teachers enrolling for teacher education programmes often bring with them fixed images and beliefs about the roles they see themselves fulfilling in the teaching profession. The aim of this research was to uncover, firstly, "beginning student teachers' initial perceptions of the roles that they see themselves performing," and…