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Roles and capacities of Thai family development centres

Warunsicha Supprasert, David Hughes, Piyatida Khajornchaikul

Journal of Children's Services, Volume: 13, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 110 - 121

Swansea University Author: David Hughes

Abstract

Thai family development centres are community organisations, staffed mainly by volunteers, that support families who are encountering problems. This includes supporting families of children subject to language acquisitions problems - the focus of this paper. The paper considers both the main areas o...

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Published in: Journal of Children's Services
ISSN: 1746-6660
Published: 2018
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44646
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Abstract: Thai family development centres are community organisations, staffed mainly by volunteers, that support families who are encountering problems. This includes supporting families of children subject to language acquisitions problems - the focus of this paper. The paper considers both the main areas of the work and areas where staff said they needed to improve capacity through formal staff development programmes. – Identifying risk, surveillance of at-risk families, building community solidarity, and activities to support families, parenting and children, emerged as key components of FDC work. Staff tread a delicate path between showing community solidarity and carrying out a form of top-down surveillance. They softened their surveillance role by emphasising their social support function and personal links to local communities. Most activities aimed to strengthen family bonding and relationships, with fewer specifically addressing early childhood language deficits. The latter was an areas where volunteer staff were least certain of their capacity to help. Rather than seeing short courses to increase expertise in this area as a solution, most respondents emphasised the advantages of building better teamwork with input from professional specialists.
Item Description: Paper written while Warunsicha Supprasert was a visiting doctoral student at Swansea University
Keywords: roles and capacities, surveillance, family development centres, parenting, early childhood language development, Thailand
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Issue: 3/4
Start Page: 110
End Page: 121