Factors influencing parents’ behaviours to promote early childhood development of 1–3-year-old children with delayed language development in Thailand

Abstract

Children with delayed language development are long-term problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate behaviours and factors influencing parents’ behaviours to promote the language development of 1-3 years old children with delayed language in the 2nd Health Service Region in Thailand. The questionnaire consisted of 5 parts, 1) personal characteristics, 2) knowledge aspects, 3) perception aspects, 4) support reception aspects and 5) behaviours to promote language development. Researchers collected the data from 537 participants. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Results of the study showed that the participants’ overall behaviour to promote language development was at the high level (94.41%). The most frequent practice in general behaviour was observing children’s gestures to communicate understanding (64.25%); in receptive language it was training children to follow simple instructions (97.21%); and in expressive language it was giving chances for children to make utterances (94.59%). The factors influencing parents’ behaviours to promote language development of 1-3-year-old children with delayed language development at the statistical significance level of 0.05 were the main caregiver, support from communities and social networks, perceived self-efficacy in language development promotion, ages of caregivers, genders of caregivers, support from families, support from the health service units, occupation as government or state enterprise officers, perceived barriers in language development promotion, and grandparents as caregivers. For recommendations, many factors can affect parents’ behaviours to promote the language development of 1-3-year-old children with delayed language development. Therefore, the health service units should study methods that should be appropriate to promote early childhood with delayed language development.