Occupational enablement through the Crosstrainer programme: Experiences of early childhood development practitioners

INTRODUCTION: In rural South Africa, inadequately trained Early Childhood Development practitioners and inequity of access have been placed as top priorities to address. Enabling occupation is the primary goal and core competency of occupational therapists and supporting the services of ECD practitioners may address these problems. The Crosstrainer Programme aims to do this by training and equipping ECD practitioners. ECD practitioners were therefore approached to reflect on the occupational enablement through the Cross-trainer Programme METHOD: Demographic questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were utilised. The data were analysed through the cyclical process of coding. RESULTS: Three major themes emerged from the data analysis, namely The Great Imbalance, Enabling Occupation, and Disabling Occupation. The participants expressed the difficulty of fulfilling the need for their services in their communities. The CTP relieves these difficulties and enables the work of ECD practitioners through increased knowledge, confidence, creative alternatives to resources, and guidance in managing their time, incorporating all six enablement foundations. The CTP disables their occupation of work through the language barrier, unclear scaling of the activities, and insufficient involvement. CONCLUSIONS: The CTP enables the occupation of the ECD practitioners and the children. Through translating the programme, adding more activities, and increasing involvement and mentoring, enablement through the CTP will improve.