“All of a sudden we noticed a difference at home too”: parents’ perception of a parent-focused early communication and AAC intervention for toddlers

Figures & data

Figure 1. Description of the ComAlong Toddler Intervention. AAC: Augmentative and alternative communication; EMT: Enhanced milieu teaching.

Table 1. Description of family characteristics, course attendance, current care, and disability or difficulties 1 year after the intervention.

Participant	Parent	Language	Sessions attended (max 5)	Current care	Parents verbatim description of their child’s disability or difficulties
Caroline	Mother	Multilingual	3	None	“It’s just his speech”
Daniel	Father	Monolingual	3	Hab^a	“It’s really hard to understand what she feels and wants”
Eileen	Mother	Monolingual	5	SLPC^b	“The preschool maybe understands 70% of what he says”
Eve	Mother	Monolingual	3	Awaiting hab	“He is under assessment for ASD^c”
Hannah	Mother	Multilingual	5	SLPC	“She talks but she makes a lot of grammar mistakes and has strange pronunciation”
Julia	Mother	Multilingual	5	Hab	“She might have some kind of ASD”
Karen	Mother	Monolingual	5	Hab	“…if he didn’t have ASD”
Levi	Father	Monolingual	2	SLP	“He mostly understands and can explain what he wants”
Matthew	Father	Monolingual	5	Hab	“…ASD, which our daughter has”
Mia	Mother	Monolingual	5	Hab	“Our daughter has late development both regarding motor skills and communication”
Maria	Mother	Monolingual	5	Hab	“She just concluded her ASD assessment”
Nadia	Mother	Multilingual	Few	None	“He is still really late, but sort of can combine two word, he shows me now”
Nour	Mother	Multilingual	5	Hab	“I did not know that he had autism”
Peter	Father	Monolingual	1	SLPC	“He still has comprehension difficulties”
Sarah	Mother	Multilingual	4	SLPC	“It looks like he understands what we say, and he wants to say as well”
Sophia	Mother	Multilingual	Many	Hab	“He has autism”

Note. ^aHab: Habilitation center; ^bSLPC: speech language pathology clinic; ^cASD: Autism spectrum disorder.

Figure 2. Example of the analytic process, with quote, condensation, code, subcategory and category.

Figure 3. Overview of Parents’ Perceptions of an Early Parent-Focused Communication and AAC Intervention for Toddlers Sorted into Categories (n = 4) and Subcategories (n = 10).