Caregiver coaching will be provided using telehealth technology, in order to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of the telehealth medium of intervention delivery for caregivers of infants with concern for ASD.
Ideally, all caregivers with an infant identified with concern for ASD would have immediate access to good quality caregiver coaching provided in the most natural environment possible. However, this is currently not the case for the majority of families. There are no empirically validated treatment programs for infants showing ASD risk. The proposed research project will use Applied Behavior Analysis-based single-subject experimental designs to further develop a promising caregiver-mediated intervention designed for infants showing early signs of ASD. Caregiver coaching will be provided using telehealth technology, in order to maximize recruitment opportunities and to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of the telehealth medium of intervention delivery for caregivers of infants with concern for ASD.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
12
Adapted from Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention
MIND institute
Sacramento, California, United States
Child Behaviors Targeted by Intervention
Treatment-targeted child behaviors (e.g., visual fixations on objects, abnormal repetitive behaviors, lack of age-appropriate phonemic development, lack of coordination of gaze, affect, and voice in reciprocal, turn-taking interactions) will be coded from 10-minute caregiver-infant dyad intervention video probes taken throughout all phases of the study.
Time frame: 7 months
Autism Observation Scale for Infants
(AOSI; Bryson et al., 2006) The AOSI will be administered by caregivers at intake and exit. During the AOSI, infants are engaged in semi-structured play and systematic presses are designed to assess various target behaviors, including visual tracking and attention disengagement, coordination of eye gaze and action, imitation, affective responses, early social-communicative behaviors, behavioral reactivity, and sensory-motor development.
Time frame: 7 months
Ages and Stages Questionnaires, 3rd Edition
(ASQ-3; Squires \& Bricker, 2015) The ASQ-3 are a series of questionnaires completed by a child's caregiver designed to assess the developmental performance of infants and children ages 1-66 months across five developmental areas: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social. The ASQ-3 takes approximately 15 minutes to be completed.
Time frame: 7 months
Individual Growth and Development Indices
(IGDIs; Carta et al., 2010) IGDIs were developed to gather very frequent assessment of child developmental progress. We will use the Early Communication Index, ECI, and the Early Problem Solving Index, EPSI, domains appropriate for ages 5 to 50 mos. Two 6-minute semi-structured and video recorded play procedures will be carried out at intake and exit.
Time frame: 7 months
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 2nd edition
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(VABS-II; Sparrow et al., 2005) The VABS-II consists of four domains of adaptive behavior: communication, self-care, social, and motor skills. The VABS-II is a semi-standardized caregiver questionnaire or interview designed to assess children's behavior in real life, everyday settings.
Time frame: 7 months
Parent Satisfaction Rating
(Charlop-Christy \& Carpenter, 2000) This is a measure of social validity, or acceptability, of the experimental treatment, to caregivers. This scale will be administered to the caregivers at intake and exit. This tool allows caregivers to rate the ease of implementation in the home and their opinions concerning treatment utility.
Time frame: 7 months
Working Alliance Scale for Interventions with Children
(Davis et al., 2006). These measures will be administered to the caregivers at intake and exit and will be used to describe the response of the families to the experimental intervention, and thus constitutes another measure of social validity.
Time frame: 7 months
Caregiver Fidelity of Treatment Implementation
Caregiver fidelity of implementation (FI) of the Infant Start intervention will be coded from 10-minute caregiver-child dyad intervention video probes to determine caregivers' FI of intervention techniques over the course of the study. The fidelity tool involves having experts in Infant Start rate caregiver use of each of the intervention strategies on a 1-5 Likert rating scale, with a code of "1" meaning the caregiver did not implement the technique throughout the session and a code of "5" meaning the caregiver implemented the technique correctly throughout the session.
Time frame: 7 months