Adapting Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch‐up for infants and young children with intellectual disabilities and developmental delays in South Africa: Reflections and recommendations from local stakeholders

Abstract

Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) is an intervention targeted at enhancing the socioemotional and regulatory functioning of at-risk infants.However, to use the ABC for infants/toddlers with intellectual disabilities/developmental delays (ID/DD) and in novel cultural contexts, such as South Africa, adaptations may be required. This study aimed, therefore, to explore the opinions of clinical experts and perceptions of caregivers regarding the use of ABC for children with ID/DD in South Africa. It also sought to incorporate the experiences of families of children with ID/DD who received, and intervenors who delivered, ABC in its first implementation in South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants. Thematic analysis explicated 12 main themes: Intervention Strengths, Points of Concern, and Recommendations (Experts); Focus on Caregiver-child Relationship, and Intervention Targets and Duration (Caregivers); Benefits of ABC, and Cultural Considerations (ABC Recipients); Focused and Targeted, Value of Feedback, Supportive Supervision, Working Alliance, and Challenges Experienced (ABC Intervenors). Practice and training recommendations include psychoeducation for parents and training for intervenors that is ID/DD-specific, expanding supervision capacity, building intervenors' cultural/linguistic sensitivity and competence, accessing referral networks, including local Community Health Workers as intervenors, and greater flexibility in how the sessions are organized.

For happy children with a visual or visual-and-intellectual disability: Efficacy research to promote sensitive caregiving with the Barti-mat

“…The results show that the Barti-mat could be a valuable adjunct to the 7-session VIPP-V interventions (Overbeek et al, 2015; Platje et al, 2018) and 10-session ABC intervention (Mohamed et al, 2021). Combining this intervention with a preventive attachment-based intervention such as the use of the Barti-mat, may allow caregivers to practice sensitive and responsive behaviour in an optimal environment where children are optimally aroused.…”