Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 26, 2025
Involving Individuals with Developmental Language Disorder and Their Parents/Carers in Research Priority Setting
Published on: June 6, 2020
Child-Parent-Provider Interactions of a Child With Complex Communication Needs in an Inpatient Rehabilitation
Jessica Gormley1,2, Janice Light2
1Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.
Insights
Children with complex communication needs often have suboptimal hospital interactions. Healthcare providers dominated communication and did not use available augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Rehabilitation
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Children with complex medical needs frequently experience prolonged hospitalizations.
- Many of these children have complex communication needs, relying on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).
- Previous research highlights suboptimal communication experiences for these children, families, and staff, but lacks observational data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically describe child-parent-provider interaction patterns in an inpatient setting.
- To analyze communication dynamics involving a child with complex communication needs, parents, and healthcare providers.
Main Methods:
- Observational study design.
- Systematic observation of a 28-month-old child with complex communication needs, her parents, and 26 healthcare providers over 10 days on an inpatient rehabilitation unit.
- Detailed recording of interaction patterns and communication modes used.
Main Results:
- Significant variability in daily routines and provider interactions was observed.
- Interactions were brief, occupying a small fraction of the child's waking hours.
- While the child and mother actively communicated, healthcare providers frequently dominated interactions.
- Multiple communication modes were used by the child, but no aided AAC systems were utilized despite their availability.
Conclusions:
- Healthcare providers require urgent training to effectively use aided AAC strategies with children.
- Training should focus on increasing the active participation of children with complex communication needs and their parents during inpatient care.
- Improving communication protocols is essential for better healthcare experiences for these vulnerable children.
Abstract:
Purpose Children with complex medical needs often require extensive hospitalizations in the first years of life. Many of these children also experience complex communication needs and use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies to interact with health care staff. Unfortunately, suboptimal communication experiences have been reported among these children, their families, and hospital staff; however, no studies have described the patterns of interactions beyond measures of self-report. The purpose of this study was to describe child-parent-provider interaction patterns that occurred in an inpatient unit. Method Observational techniques were used to systematically describe the interactions of a 28-month-old child with complex communication needs, her parents, and 26 health care providers on an inpatient rehabilitation unit over 10 days. Results Results indicated that substantial variability in the child's routine occurred across days and providers. Interactions were generally short and occurred for only a small proportion of the child's waking hours. The child and her mother actively communicated to varying degrees across sessions, yet health care providers often dominated interactions. The child used multiple modes of communication in each interaction; however, no aided AAC systems were used despite availability. Conclusions Training is urgently required to equip health care providers to (a) incorporate the use of aided AAC strategies during inpatient interactions and (b) increase the active participation of both children with complex communication needs and their parents during these interactions. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13345187.
More Related Videos
10:11Portable Intermodal Preferential Looking IPL: Investigating Language Comprehension in Typically Developing Toddlers and Young Children with Autism
Published on: December 14, 2012
08:08Author Spotlight: Capturing Infant-Caregiver Interactions Through Synchronized Multimodal Data Collection
Published on: May 31, 2024
Related Concept Videos
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-II
Rural health centers are specialized care facilities in remote locations with very few medical personnel. The primary care providers who run the centers are mostly Registered Nurse Practitioners. Here, emergency treatment is provided to critically ill or injured patients before they are transferred to the closest hospital. Fortunately, due to advancement in technology, many rural healthcare facilities and professionals have easy access to diagnostic and treatment...
01:30Specialized Care Centers and Settings-I
Daycare centers
They provide several functions. Some facilities care for healthy newborns and children whose parents work, while others are medically focused and care for...
01:30Therapeutic Communication
Verbal communication depends on language or a prescribed way of using words so that people can share information effectively. The critical aspects of verbal...
01:30Community Based Intervention
Foundations of Community Mental Health Programs
Central to the success of community-based interventions is the...
01:25Role of Communication in the Nursing Process II: Planning and Implementation