Family education in child language: contributions of the focus group

Abstract

The Focus Group has been used in the area of Humanities as a method to identify perceptions of different social groups, in the most diverse themes. The objective of this work is to present the contributions from the focus group used with mothers of children with global development delays in a research that aimed to develop and to tailor fascicles of family counseling to language. The focus group was composed of four mothers, the researcher, who assumed the role of moderator, and an observer, mainly responsible for registration of non-verbal behaviors of the participants. In the first reunion, guidance was given on the purpose of the meetings; the commitment to the issue of opinions regarding the features of the format and content of the volumes; and as to the functions of the observer and moderator. Eight face-to-face meetings were held fortnightly over four months. Verbal reports of the constituents of the Group were registered through audio recordings, transcribed and arranged for further analysis. The focus group showed appropriate procedure to involve parents in a reflective exercise concerning the development of communication and to define the content and format of guidelines written for the target population. The results indicated that the preparation of installments, in partnership with families, made it possible for parents to expand participation in the language development of their children. In addition, it was evident the interaction between the participants, as a focal group, set up in the triggering factor for identifying common aspects in the inter-subjective plan.