‘A blender without the lid on’: Mealtime experiences of caregivers with a child with autism spectrum disorder in South Africa

South African Journal of Communication Disorders

 
 
Field Value
 
Title ‘A blender without the lid on’: Mealtime experiences of caregivers with a child with autism spectrum disorder in South Africa
 
Creator Adams, Skye N. Verachia, Raeesa Coutts, Kim
 
Subject Speech Language Pathology autism; family-centred care; feeding; mealtimes; picky eating; South Africa.
Description Background: Evidence suggests that caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and associated feeding difficulties have specific mealtime challenges in the home environment because of the limited interventions that are appropriate and responsive to the needs of the child as well as the family.Objectives: To describe: (1) common feeding difficulties in children with ASD, (2) mealtime challenges for the caregiver and (3) mealtime strategies used by the caregiver.Method: Forty caregivers were purposively sampled to participate in the study. Participants were recruited through ASD-specific schools in Johannesburg, South Africa. Participants completed an online questionnaire focusing on their mealtime experiences with their child with ASD.Results: Findings from the data after thematic analysis indicated the multitude of challenges caregivers have when feeding their child with ASD as well as their individualised way of dealing with these difficulties.Conclusion: The findings emphasised the importance of incorporating the family’s beliefs, values and needs into feeding management and highlight the importance of a holistic approach to intervention. The study also provided information about mealtime strategies that are being used in the home environment to support the child as well as the caregiver. This information can be used to inform management to improve therapeutic outcomes and feeding challenges in the home environment.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor SA is supported by Consortium for Advanced Training in Africa (CARTA) who is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (Grant No: B 8606.R02) Sida (Grant No: 54100029) the DELTAS Africa Initiative (Grant No: 107768/Z/15/Z)
Date 2020-10-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajcd.v67i1.708
 
Source South African Journal of Communication Disorders; Vol 67, No 1 (2020); 9 pages 2225-4765 0379-8046
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/708/1384 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/708/1383 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/708/1385 https://sajcd.org.za/index.php/sajcd/article/view/708/1382
 
Coverage South Africa — Caregivers children with Autism; 18-65; Male and female
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Skye N. Adams, Raeesa Verachia, Kim Coutts https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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