Parent Telehealth Intervention for Children With Autism

Northwestern University47 enrolled

Overview

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, telecoaching/telepractice models are of urgent importance. Given this, parents in the study will receive parent coaching through weekly video calls. To help us understand the best types of telecoaching, we will offer all participants responsive coaching, with half of the participants receiving an additional opportunity to reflect on their own use of language strategies with a therapist using video feedback and the other half receiving responsive coaching as usual, without video feedback. This information is important in helping us to understand the best way to coach parents using a telepractice model so that parents implement the intervention at high fidelity. Furthermore, we will aim to understand how parent learning style may also influence the implementation of these strategies.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder Autism

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 MonthsMax age: 48 MonthsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: Child inclusion criteria include: * diagnosis of ASD or showing signs of ASD based on autism screening * chronological age of less than 48 months * a parent who is willing to learn intervention strategies * English as the primary language spoken in the home Parent inclusion criteria include: \- Biological Mother Exclusion Criteria: * Children or parents with additional impairments (e.g., blindness, deafness, genetic syndromes) will be excluded from the study. * Fathers or caregivers other than the child's Mother will be excluded from the study.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Parent Use of Language Support Strategies (Mother-child interaction)

Mother use of intervention strategies will be measured by transcribing and coding mother behaviors during 12-minute parent-child interactions, using a standard set of toys. The primary dependent variable will be the amount of correct strategy used expressed as a percentage correct. This is the percentage of child communication to which the adult responds correctly (i.e., contingently and within 5 seconds).

Time frame: Two months after the start of the study

Secondary Outcomes

MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI) (Child)

Parent report of child's expressive vocabulary and prelinguistic communication skills