Abstract
Institutional care is a reality that many orphaned children face worldwide. Unfortunately, institutional care facilities such as orphanages, places of safety and foster care homes have been associated with negative developmental outcomes. Vulnerable children placed in the foster care system are not only prone to chronic medical and mental health conditions, but they are also prone to exhibiting behavioural, intellectual, social, and educational challenges due to the early life adversity that they face. Recent studies have indicated that caregivers feel that they are ill-equipped, burned out and do not have the necessary ongoing support to provide support to foster care children experiencing developmental barriers to learning. Due to the lack of knowledge, training, and resources, the caregivers are either unaware of the developmental barriers to learning and developmental delays or do not know how to address them. Providing adequate psycho-educational training and support to caregivers will enhance their skills development, strengthen their capacity to handle responsibilities, and deal with emotional, behavioural and developmental challenges.
This study aimed to ascertain the gap in providing effective psycho-educational interventions for caregivers to enhance support for foster care children facing developmental barriers to learning. The qualitative research approach guided the research process. This research utilised a descriptive case study design to portray the real-life context of a caregiver working with foster care children experiencing developmental barriers to learning. Stratified purposive sampling was used, and all 15 participants were selected from the place of safety where the research was conducted. The data was obtained through semi-structured interviews and biographical questionnaires. The data was analysed through the thematic analysis process.
The findings of this study revealed that there is a gap in psycho-educational interventions for caregivers supporting foster care children with developmental barriers to learning. For most caregivers, the experience of acting as a caregiver or volunteer at a place of safety was a new experience for them. They described their responsibilities as providing love and caring for the children. The caregivers identified a lack of training and knowledge on childhood development, identification and addressing of developmental barriers to learning, effectively managing behavioural and emotional outbursts and different learning styles. They reported that they experience various challenges relating to a lack of resources, including finances and access to medical professionals for assistance with the foster care children, a lack of emotional and
v
psychosocial support for the caregivers, strained caregiver relationships, lack of background information about the children, an unproductive learning environment and emotional and behavioural outbursts of foster care children with developmental barriers to learning.
By ascertaining the gap in psycho-educational interventions for caregivers supporting foster care children with developmental barriers to learning, effective psycho-educational interventions can be implemented.
Keywords: Developmental barriers to learning, foster care, psycho-educational interventions, challenges, support systems.