Moving Toward Telehealth Surveillance Services for Toddlers at Risk for Autism During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Eugenia Conti,Fabio Apicella,Natasha Chericoni,Roberta Lasala,Margherita Prosperi,Valeria Costanzo,Raffaella Tancredi,Alice Mancini,Sara Calderoni,Filippo Muratori

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.565999

Eugenia Conti, Fabio Apicella + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.565999

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Abstract

Since 2016, the project “Early Bird Diagnostic Protocol for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)” funded by the Italian Ministry of Health has been operative at IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris (FSM), Pisa (IT), with the main aim of developing early age-specific diagnostic protocols by longitudinally enrolling two different populations at risk for ASD: (i) toddlers with older siblings with ASD (FR) and (ii) toddlers referred by a child psychiatrist or pediatrician for suspected ASD (CR). On January 30, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), 136 patients (85 FR; 51 CR; 93 males; 43 females) had been enrolled in the project with 324 completed time points and 64 still missing. Considering both the huge psychological burden on families with toddlers at risk for ASD during the lockdown and the longitudinal studies reporting the positive “surveillance effect” in terms of a better outcome in at-risk toddlers, our priority has been to maintain regular contact and support to enrolled families. To do this, the research team, being authorized for smart-working research activities, has set up a detailed remote surveillance protocol (RSP). The RSP includes three online interviews and one online video registration of parent–child play. In the current community case study, the authors report the telehealth procedure and discuss possible future directions in developing remote assessment and new evaluation modalities for ecological parent–child play video recordings in at-risk populations. Hopefully, the surveillance protocol will further improve our ability to detect risk and activate early tailored intervention.

Highlights

With an estimated prevalence of one in 87 children aged 7–9 years in Italy [1], autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are increasingly perceived as a public health priority, with a significant individual, familial, and societal burden, both emotional and economic
Telehealth Surveillance for Toddlers at Risk for Autism to detect ASD starting from 14 months of age in at least a certain proportion of children [2]; (ii) very young children benefit from early intervention (EI), especially when parents are actively involved in the rehabilitation process [3]; and (iii) intervention should be initiated as soon as possible, when signs of ASD risk appear [4]
Based on these three assumptions, since 2016 the project “Early Bird Diagnostic Protocol for Autism Spectrum Disorders” (EARLY BIRD; NET-2013-02355263-3) funded by the Italian Ministry of Health has been operative at IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris (FSM), Pisa (IT), a tertiarycare University hospital that receives patients from all over Italy

Summary

Introduction

With an estimated prevalence of one in 87 children aged 7–9 years in Italy [1], autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are increasingly perceived as a public health priority, with a significant individual, familial, and societal burden, both emotional and economic. Our priority has been to maintain regular contact and support the families whose child was being followed in his developmental trajectory by the multidisciplinary team, in order to continue the active surveillance of toddlers at risk for ASD during the COVID-19 crisis.

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