Telepractice Delivery of an Autism Communication Intervention Program to Parent Groups

Abstract

BackgroundSocial communication is a core challenge for children with autism and research confirms that early intervention positively impacts developmental outcomes. Families often experience barriers when accessing early intervention such as service availability, cost, and geographical location. Telepractice intervention has been used effectively with individual families to help overcome service barriers and to assist service access. This research investigated an expanded telepractice approach involving delivery of a manualized communication intervention to groups of parents. The research evaluated parent and child communication outcomes following participation in a telepractice-delivered, Hanen More Than Words (HMTW) group program. MethodA single case experimental design involving a multiple-baseline-across-groups was implemented with 11 mother–child dyads. Quantitative analyses investigated both parent and child interactive communication behaviours during baseline, intervention, and post-intervention research phases. ResultsResults demonstrated improved parental responsiveness and increased child social communication behaviour following participation in the telepractice-delivered HMTW. Changes in parent and child communication behaviour were maintained during the post-intervention phase. ConclusionsThe results support the application of telepractice for delivering a group-based early intervention training program. Expanding telepractice service delivery from individual to group-based intervention has the potential to increase service choice for families and to mitigate service access barriers.