Caregivers’ perspectives of a linguistically and contextually adapted early childhood developmental milestone guide for children (birth to 3 years 11 months)

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine the perspectives of caregivers of young children (birth to 3 years 11 months) regarding an international developmental milestone guide, recently contextually and linguistically adapted for South African families from low-resourced contexts. Method: A mixed method research design with both qualitative and quantitative aspects were employed. A semi-structured interview was conducted using an interview schedule which had open-ended questions in order to gain insight on the perspectives of caregivers and closed-ended questions. A pilot study with three participants was conducted to refine the interview schedule prior to data collection. The perceptions of 18 caregivers of children aged between birth to 3 years 11 months were analysed using thematic analysis. Quantitative aspects were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: The majority of the themes derived from the caregivers’ feedback demonstrated that the adapted developmental milestone guide was helpful and supportive of developmental literacy. Based on participant feedback, 7 of the 46 items in the adapted developmental milestone guide were further amended, and an additional domain on feeding skills was added. Four themes were identified from the participants’ responses to the guide, including accessibility, linguistic complexity and diversity, developmental literacy, and contextual relevance. All the participants indicated that they want access to the guide. Conclusion: The recently adapted developmental milestone guide for the South African context was reported to be relevant and to promote developmental literacy among caregivers of very young children. Further adjustments will be made based on the caregivers' perspectives to the linguistic complexity in order to make the adapted developmental milestone guide more comprehensible.