Analysis of caregivers' perspectives on communication needs of children with complex communication in a residential care facility

This dataset presents responses of caregivers who provide support to children with complex communication needs (CCN) in a residential care facility organised in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It consists of the participants’ biographical information that was obtained from the care facility manager as well as through the participants’ interviews. It also consists of interview questions and participants’ responses to the questions. Each question of the interview schedule was assigned its sheet in the Microsoft Excel file. The contents of each sheet consisted of a question number, the interview question, all the participants' responses to those questions as well as the codes and the identified themes. The study was conducted to explore caregivers’ perceptions and understanding of the communication needs of children with communication disabilities in a residential care facility/care centre. The study also investigated the role that caregivers played in meeting the communication needs of the children as well as the communication strategies that were implemented in the care facility. It was imperative to understand how caregivers perceived communication, and how their knowledge and understanding of communication influenced their level of interaction with the children as well as the participation of the children in daily activities. Understanding the caregivers’ perceptions will also provide insight into barriers to communication participation in residential care facilities for children with disabilities.

The care facility that was purposefully selected for this study was a residential care facility that offered alternative and partial care to children with disabilities in Mamelodi, a township in the City of Tshwane. Participants included only caregivers who worked directly with children who had communication disabilities. The qualitative data was collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews with seven caregivers. The interview schedule was developed based on a range of previous studies and aimed to obtain information on (1) biographical information of the caregivers, (2) caregivers’ understanding of communication, (3) caregivers’ knowledge of the children’s communication needs and skills as well as (4) the views of caregivers regarding their roles in supporting communication. Caregivers’ responses were recorded on a voice recorder and transcribed verbatim. A translator was employed to transcribe and translate participants' responses that were not in English. A thematic data analysis method was then used to organize the transcribed data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and identify themes. Dominant themes in the study were limited communication support resources, inconsistent speech therapy services and the need for training on AAC. Challenges and factors contributing to the limited communication support were also identified, namely short staffing, the additional teaching role, and the lack of knowledge and skills to support communication. The findings of the study also indicated that caregivers described the children's communication skills as emergent communicators and that caregivers mainly focused on the physical care of the children like bathing, feeding and medical care with not much time allocated to activities that encouraged communication participation. This is usually the case in many care facilities for children with disabilities in South Africa. Challenges that were presented by participants were rarely related to children’s inability to communicate through speech but rather the caregivers’ own challenges of caring for children with disabilities. It can be deduced that caregivers did not have much communication expectation from the children. There is a dire need for training of caregivers focusing on communication needs of children with CCN in care facilities, communication support skills as well as support by speech therapists knowledgeable in AAC.